Jekyll & Hyde

Jekyll & Hyde
By Leslie Bricusse and Frank Wildhorn. Gosford Musical Society (NSW). Laycock Street Theatre, Gosford. Director: Rob Hickey. July 27 – August 11, 2012

There’s some mystique around this 1990 musical. Though popular among aficionados because of several memorable songs and a seeming affinity with period blockbusters Les Miz and Phantom, Jekyll & Hyde has never had a professional production in Australia. So community theatre must lead the way — but only companies that, like the excellent Gosford Musical Society, have the resources and available talents to match the show’s considerable demands.

Frank Wildhorn’s music is complex, often downright operatic, often with challenging tempi: an off-stage chorus often accompanies the orchestra to stirring effect. Veteran librettist Leslie Bricusse, who wrote Stop the World – I Want to Get Off with Anthony Newley in the Sixties, has done a blood-and-thunder, melodramatic makeover of the old story, requiring some over-the-top effects from his director and his principal actors.

Simon Castle gives the physically and vocally exacting lead role a red-hot go and his reward was a first-night standing ovation. He sings beautifully — ‘This is the Moment’ is terrific — and he prowls menacingly. He’s not aided by an obvious and unlikely pony-tailed wig as Jekyll; though, unleashed, it does become an instant disguise for him to Hyde behind.

Adaptations for stage or screen of Robert Louis Stevenson’s great High Victorian novel unfailingly add females to the all-male original. Here we have upper crust dames and lower class dancers (the troupe at The Red Rat joint are particularly feisty), plus two ‘love interests’ for the hero/villain doctor. Reed-thin blonde Rachael Harpur is fine as his puzzled fiancée, and dark-haired Monique Donath dominates the second half as the prostitute who seeks his help. Her moving, openhearted rendition of ‘A New Life’ is the evening’s highlight.

Among a strong supporting cast, Darryl Davis is notably distasteful as the unctuous, child-loving Bishop of Basingstoke. Musical direction, lighting and sound are, as usual with GMS, to a high standard, though the broad setting with its permanent staircase is not conducive to intimate insets or speedy changes: regular furniture removals add to the running time. 

Frank Hatherley 

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