Review: JEKYLL & HYDE at San Diego Musical Theatre

San Diego Musical Theatre’s production of “Jekyll & Hyde” is a wonderfully melodramatic gothic soap opera, which I mean as the highest compliment. It’s all swirling greatcoats, corsets, and capelets; candlelit laboratories and shadowy London streets; a pulpy drama that luxuriates in its own excess. If it sometimes feels self-indulgent, that’s because it’s supposed to. After all, this story began as a penny dreadful novel, and that means power ballads and bombastic staging are not just expected, but required.

The 1997 Broadway musical, based on the 1886 work by Robert Louis Stevenson,  with a book by Leslie Bricusse and a pop-rock score by Frank Wildhorn, has always divided audiences. It’s gory, grandiose, and often more than a little ridiculous, but it’s also packed with songs so unapologetically dramatic that they’ve earned a cult following among musical theatre devotees. Director Omri Schein leans all the way in, embracing the blood spatter, the PG-13 innuendo, and the streak of dark humor that runs through it all. 

As Dr. Henry Jekyll and his monstrous alter ego Edward Hyde, Richard Bermudez delivers a vocally thrilling performance with a lot of physicality. His Jekyll is gentle and idealistic; his Hyde, all growl and menace. Bermudez fills the theatre with an immense voice that can shift from tender to terrifying in a heartbeat, with seamless vocal control. His renditions of “This Is the Moment” and the dual-character showdown “Confrontation” are showstoppers.

Melissa Musial is a knockout as Lucy, the doomed nightclub singer whose path crosses both halves of the same man. Her voice soars through “Someone Like You” and “A New Life,” grounding Lucy’s tragedy in aching sincerity. Dacara Seward plays Emma, Jekyll’s supportive fiancée, with warmth and clear tone, and the duet between Sweards and Musial, “In His Eyes,” is one of the evening’s highlights.

The ensemble work is equally strong: Tanner Vydos brings a steady presence as Jekyll’s loyal friend Utterson; Ruff Yeager adds gravitas as Sir Danvers; Nick Siljander as Simon Stridetaking glee in thwarting Jekyll’s requests, and Cameron Blakenship’s Spider exudes wiry menace. 

Choreography by Luke H. Jacobs gives the sense of a bustling, vice-filled London, and is especially fun in the bawdy and cheeky “Bring on the Men,”  and then sets the heightened tone in the second act opener in the ‘Murder”.  Scenic Design by Chiara Oyos-Haynes allows for quick scene changes with cleverly hidden or fast-moving set pieces, and the artwork on the walls and the lighting design by Michelle Miles add to the spooky feeling.

Schein’s affection for the material shines through every fog-filled scene. In his program note, he admits that the“Jekyll & Hyde” concept album played on endless loop during his youth, and honestly, same. Perhaps it’s a 90s-theatre-kid thing, this affection for emo-goth melodrama wrapped in rock-opera grandeur. 

If you’re in the mood for a gloriously over-the-top musical with powerhouse vocals, capes, and chaos, then this “Jekyll & Hyde” at SDMT is your moment.

How To Get Tickets

“Jekyll & Hyde” is playing at San Diego Musical Theatre through November 2nd.  For ticket and showtime information, go to sdmt.org

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