jekyll & hyde

[children&art]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 4:23pm

WHY OH WHY did they change "Jekyll & Hyde" so drastically for Broadway? I saw it in Houston in it's first inception, and wore out my concept 2 CDs (w/ Carolee Carmello).

Originally the show I saw was creepy and moody with touches of "Phantom" and "Les Mis" and a real personality. The show I saw on Broadway was slick and clean and uninteresting.

[aslarson05]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 4:32pm

I never saw it... I actually just got into it, and I already have fallen in love with the music. Linda Eder has such a beautiful and powerful voice. I love every song she sings.

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 4:34pm

I just got this cast recording yesterday and fell in love with it as well. There's a I believe regional production of it happening next year about 45 minutes away from me, I most definitely will be going.

[trpguyy]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 4:37pm

I do not know why, but the show was drastically cleaned up for "family audiences" when it settled down in NYC. I saw the orignal tour, and though I was very young, I remember "Bring on the Men," brutal killings, and lots of blood at the end. And lots and lots of singing.

I wish they'd kept it all for Broadway. Fortunately there are "sick" directors out there making it raunchy again for regional productions (like the one I was in).

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 4:42pm

this has been discussed many times, but I'll chime in to say that as I have read here it was changed on Broadway mostly from pressure coming from all sorts of places including the director and producers to shorten the running time and other such things such as Linda not wanting to sing "Bring on the Men" etc.

thankfully, regional theatres have three scripts to choose from ("Green" and "Red" from MTI and the FCLO version) and none of those are the Broadway incarnation.

The FAQ on the official website should be able to answer a lot of your questions...

http://www.jekyll-hyde.com/contact/faq-index.shtml Updated On: 12/12/05 at 04:42 PM

[umgeoboy]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 4:43pm

There is also the current concert tour with Rob Evan and Kate Shindle, with a new song for Emma. Which is the newest version of this show.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 5:01pm

I TOTALLY agree! I especially hate the Facade reprises!

I saw a college production, and was very thrilled when they did "Bring on the Men" and not "Good n' Evil." They also did "I Need to Know"... which AFAIK is not in the Broadway version. Yay!

Posted: 12/12/05 at 5:05pm

i agree on the broadway concept. it wasn't my favorite. the director was a PLAY director...and i believe he felt the music got in the way of the scenes...unfortunately much underscoring and rececitive was cut...the David Warren tour version was much more to Wildhorn's and MY liking....

[Enjolras77]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 5:43pm

As was stated above, many of the cuts were due to run and the re-imagining of some of the characters. Here are the comments I posted on the thread about the song "The Girls of the Night"...it is also relevent to this thread.

"There were several good songs that were cut before J&H made it to Broadway. Among them were "I Need to Know", "Bring on the Men" and "The World Has Gone Insane". I think during that pre-broadway tour the show was running pretty long. There was also some criticism that there was "too much exposition" (as stated in Urinetown)because it took too long for Jekyll to become Hyde. They toned down Lucy's appearance as a prostitute..thus the cleaner "Good and Evil" instead of "Bring on the Men" and the cutting of "The Girls of the Night". They also cut songs that were superfluous or sung by superfluous characters--another reason "Girls" was cut and for "Insane". I do agree that there will never be a Jekyll/Hyde as amazing as Anthony Warlow. (ahem...see avatar"

[thez914]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 9:38pm

Does anyone know if the original material is still available for licensing? I'd love to do this version if I could. Or better yet combine the songs I like from the two.

Let the law-breaking good times roll...

[Elphaba]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 9:58pm

there is a regional production happening in San Diego at the Lyceum Jan3-10

[jimmirae]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 9:59pm

there is a regional production happening in San Diego at the Lyceum Jan3-10
dumb post btw...

[whatacharacter]

Posted: 12/13/05 at 3:56pm

MTI is pretty flexible. A theatre I have worked at completely re worked the begining of the show...different from all three scripts...Opening with Fascade, going into I need to Know and then doing the end of Fascade. It worked really well, and MTI had no problems with allowing the changes.

[broadwayjules]

Posted: 12/13/05 at 5:17pm

""such things such as Linda not wanting to sing "Bring on the Men" etc.""

Where did you get this information catsny? I didn't think that was the case, she sang this song in concerts and everything.

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 12/13/05 at 6:27pm

As far as I know none of the Lucys had a problem with "Bring On The Men". Most preferred it to "Good and Evil" the dribble that replaced it.

Linda, in fact had fun with BOTM in several concerts. At one point in the song where Lucy sings " So many men, so little time, am I to blame, is that a crime?", her fans started answering her with a robust "NO!". This became part of the "audience participation" of the song in future concerts.

Not to forget the Jekyll who changed the words of "This is The Moment" to " This is My Mortgage". Funny, Wildhorn was told to scrap that song.

While many poke fun at J&H...we sure had a lot of fun with the songs and the casts. There was a lot of great talent that sprung from that. My favorite " from here to there" success story is Brad Oscar, who still can't believe this all happened to him.

[broadwayjules]

Posted: 12/13/05 at 9:54pm

I agree with PB...I was at several of the Linda concerts where she sang Bring On The Men, and the audience always participated. I definitely don't think they removed the song because Linda didn't want to sing it. She has fun with it...a la the PBS concert she taped. That's my girl!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/14/05 at 12:08am

Met her after J/H performance outside as my wife loves the song

She admitted the director made a mistake pulling it but when the national tour started it would be put back in. This is almost her anthem for crying out loud

We saw her @ Colden auditorium a few years back & when she sang it it was audience participation time

Updated On: 12/14/05 at 12:08 AM

[Soozie]

Posted: 12/14/05 at 2:08am

My daughter played Lucy in a youth production this past summer and they had Bring on the Men AND Good and Evil and I Need to Know in her show.

[WildhornFanatic]

Posted: 12/14/05 at 9:27am

Soozie - Where did they place those songs in the show to allow it to make sense?

[Joe Mike2]

Posted: 12/17/05 at 8:19pm

Lots of the stuff they did on Bway improved the production. The preBroadway tour was long and rambling. The director of the Bway production tightened the show and made the characters stronger. Emma and John Utterson especially were made stronger by the improved book. Lots of the recitative in the original is repetitive and boring. Even self-indulgent. "I need to Know" is a great song but adds nothing new to the story and therefore needed to come out. I would have left "Girls of the Night" in because I think that song enriched Lucy's character and also told us something about Nellie. I would also have loved "The World Has Gone Insane" to have stayed in but -- like "I need to Know," it doesn't drive the plot or the character and so it was correctly eliminated. While I love the concept album, the directors job is to create an evening of theatre that works, tells a story and keeps the audience's interest. His big mistake was losing "Bring on the Men," which is a wonderful song and also has some humor in an otherwise pretty humorless show. But a lot of what the B'way director did actually improved the show, IMO.
Updated On: 12/17/05 at 08:19 PM

Posted: 12/18/05 at 12:14am

I saw it in Atlantic City and I thought it was brillant.

[bostonbroadwayfan]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 8:09am

I recommend picking up the J&H Complete WorK CD.
It's really wonderful.
I heard Linda sing BOTM the first time I saw her in concert but the other four times she did not.