Chuck Wagner, who will star in Jekyll & Hyde when it comes to Shea's on April
11, has been familiar with composer Frank Wildhorn's musicals from the very
beginning. It started twenty years ago at the University of Southern California,
when Wagner overheard a conversation while registering on his very first day
there.
"I overheard them say that they had just cast a tall woman for a new musical,
and they needed a tall man who could sing," Wagner recalls. "So I stuck my
head in the door and said, 'Excuse me. I'm tall. I can sing.' That show was
called Christopher and the composer was Frank Wildhorn. I sang for him for
three hours that day, and I've been singing his music ever since."
Wagner sang some of the music that would go into Jekyll & Hyde shortly after
fellow USC students Wildhorn and Steve Cuden began developing the musical.
Ten years later, in 1990, Wagner created the role of Jekyll/Hyde at Houston's
Alley Theatre.
"After we did Jekyll & Hyde, I moved to New York, thinking that Jekyll & Hyde
was coming [to Broadway] right away," Wagner says. "Jekyll & Hyde did not
come right away, and I got cast in the national tour of Les Mis." While he
was playing Javert in Les Mis, the J&H pre-Broadway tour started.
After Les Mis, Wagner joined the original cast of Disney's Beauty and the
Beast as stand-by to the Beast and Gaston. "I moved to Toronto where I opened
the show and was the Beast in Canada for two years," says Wagner. "I moved
my whole family to Canada, which was a great cultural experience for us---the
Canadian school system was really fabulous.
"Then I moved back to New York and was the Beast for two more years on Broadway.
I was the Beast when Jekyll & Hyde finally made it to New York.
"After Beauty and the Beast, they asked me to come back. What's nice about
this tour was that I didn't have to audition. I was invited to come back and
star.
"Two weeks after we leave Buffalo, we'll come full circle and I'll close the
tour in Houston. Houston has been the birthplace and will now (for me) be
the resting place of Jekyll & Hyde."
Being with this show since its conception has allowed Wagner to witness Jekyll
& Hyde's evolution. Since the USC days, he points out, "a couple of songs,
'Murder, Murder' and 'The Feeling of Being Alive,' are essentially the same
but have been refined by (J&H lyricist) Leslie Bricusse."
Jekyll & Hyde changes constantly because of Wildhorn's philosophy regarding
the performers. This extends to the touring company.
" Theatre is always a work in progress. A lot of the shows try to put out
cookie-cutter versions of themselves, but anytime you have new talent involved,
it's going to be a little different. What's great about this format is we're
able to find the strengths of the individual performers and allow them to
bring their own special magic to the show," explains Wagner.
" The structure of the show has continually evolved. I think it was very good
in the pre-Broadway tour. It was refined for Broadway. And then refined another
step for our tour. Variety and others have said that our show is the best
staging ever."
Some specific refinements for this tour include the addition of songs that
were part of the original show, but eliminated for Broadway. Wagner sings
"I Need To Know" while co-star Becca Ayers (alternating performances with
Deb Lyons) as the sultry Lucy sings "Bring On The Men."
"There's a little less dialogue in our show than there is in New York, so
it's a little more of a Les Mis style pop opera than an actual book drama.
It's kind of a visceral rollercoaster...an emotional wash of music and sex,"
says Wagner, laughing.
Nonetheless, he feels the show is appropriate for teens. "I wouldn't bring
Teletubby-age kids, but I think that this is an excellent show to hook young
people on the magic of live theatre."
Shows like Wildhorn's Jekyll & Hyde and the late Jonathan Larson's Rent are
often considered as the salvation of modern musical theatre. While critics
often look askance at the shows, fans---especially younger fans---flock to
them in droves.
Wagner disregards the critics.
" I think that Frank is certainly one of the great hopes for the musical.
Critics come in with a chip on their shoulder. They want to a part of the
Broadway 'in the know' crowd, so they feel it's good to bash Frank Wildhorn
and his pop background. But to me, what makes Frank's music accessible---and
this can be said about Les Mis and Phantom of the Opera---is that they've
taken a pop language and made the songs easy to listen to for the regular
public. They've made the musical a people-friendly medium.
"It always was that way. Frank has brought back the spirit of Broadway from
the Twenties to the Forties; days of Cole Porter, Gershwin, and Rodgers and
Hammerstein. All of the pop songs of the day were big Broadway hits.
"Then, when rock n' roll came, there was a schism between the two. What Frank
is trying to do is bring pop music back to Broadway in a fusion of love, to
keep theatre alive."
Wagner calls the music in Jekyll & Hyde "Gothic Pop" because it infuses the
Victorian era of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic story with a modern sensibility.
"If you come in with an open heart," says Wagner, "you cannot help but love
it,"
Jekyll & Hyde runs April 11 through April 16. Visit the Shea's Box Office
or call Ticketmaster for tickets. Log on to www.chuckwagner.com for information
on Wagner's CD.