Dr. Hyde as Rock Star at Kravis
By Skip Sheffield
Two outstanding performances distinguish a stripped-down,
amped-up production of “Jekyll & Hyde,” continuing through Sunday, March 31
at Kravis Center
in West Palm Beach .
The outstanding performers are Deborah Cox and Teal Wicks,
who play the two women in the life of the lead character (s), played by
Constantine Maroulis.
Tony-nominated for “Rock of Ages,’ Maroulis is more
rock-star type than Broadway performer. As the brilliant, benevolent Dr. Henry
Jekyll, Maroulis affects a soft, oddly-accented speaking voice. Physically, his
uptightness is shown through his tightly-tied hair and professorial
steel-rimmed glasses.
In case the audience doesn’t “get” the troubled nature of
Dr. Jekyll, there is an opening scene which displays a deranged,
strait-jacketed patient on a patient bed. Dr. Jekyll has made it his life’s
work to examine the dual good-evil nature of man, and find some way to extract
the bad and preserve the good. Anyone who has read the original Robert Louis
Stevenson novella knows how that went. The patient is Dr. Jekyll’s father.
When the stuffy, conservative medical board refuses to allow
Dr. Jekyll to experiment on an incarcerated mental patient, he decides to
experiment on himself.
This stripped-down version of the 1997 Leslie Bricusse-Frank
Wildhorn Broadway show has streamlined, much simplified sets, amplified by
projected video images and lightening-like lighting. The main character’s inner
thoughts are displayed in script on a screen.
When Dr. Jekyll transforms into the infamous, murderous
Edward Hyde, he loses the spectacles, lets down the hair, and speaks in a
menacing growl.
Leslie Bricusse’s score has never been one of my favorites,
and his lyrics are worse: trite and predictable. “This is the Moment” is
probably the most famous song; popular at sporting events, but my personal
favorite is “In His Eyes,” a duet sung by the very different characters of
virginal, proper Emma (“Wicked” veteran Teal Carew), Dr. Hyde’s fiancée, and
Lucy (Deborah Cox), the sensuous dance house girl who arouses Mr. Hyde’s more
carnal feelings.
Carew has a classically lovely, wide-ranging soprano with
perfect enunciation. Cox knocks it out of the park with an earthier,
R&B-style belt. The women are terrific together in that brief moment, and
it overshadows all the other rather shallow, cartoonish characters.
This Broadway-bound show is clearly aimed at a younger
audience, weaned on “American Idol,” “The Voice” and rock concerts. The
tumultuous finale after “The Wedding” is such an overblown spectacle of sound,
light and garish projections it reminded me of Alice Cooper performing “Welcome
to My Nightmare.”
Maybe that is the aim of director/choreographer Jeff
Calhoun. Broadway certainly needs younger audiences to survive. Deborah Cox’s
fans turned out in force, and by all appearances were delighted. We shall see
when the show hits New York .
Tickets are $25 up. Call 800-572-8471 or go to www.kravis.org.
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