'Jekyll & Hyde' falls short of its material Wednesday, March 8, 2000

BY GORDON BOLAR
SPECIAL TO THE KALAMAZOO GAZETTE


Seemingly, the production of "Jekyll & Hyde" playing at Miller Auditorium has the ingredients for a musical sensation:flashy spectacle with winning special effects, gifted lead actors with powerful voices, fast-paced set changes, the ability to hold an audience, and a strong score.Why then are many of its drop-dead showstoppers greeted with appreciative but polite applause?And why does one leave the theater with the feeling that something vital is missing here?

The answer lies in Leslie Bricusse's book, based on Robert Louis Stevenson's19th-century novella.The story of the well intentioned doctor whose experiments on himself go monstrously wrong is familiar and initially attractive.Yet ultimately the original, sentimental tale and this version offer little more than a reminder of the duality of human nature.Long before the end of this show and after being restated a many times, the piece's underlying platitude about man's potential for both good and evil begins to have a hollow ring.

Early in the evening, the company's ensemble presents a brilliantly staged musical number in which the length and breadth of Victorian society offers a glimpse into thehuman psyche, inviting us to look behind the "Facade."Unfortunately the raising of this scrim provides some mild social satire but not much of the promised revelation.

Jekyll's journey into London's steamy Red Rat brothel does provide a venue for the extraordinary talents of Sharon Brown as the bawdy Lucy, belting out "Bring on the Men" and backed up by six women cross-dressed in formal attire.But hasn't this club number been done before?There is a definite sense of deja vu (both the sensation and the perhaps even the local club) - Sally Bowles of Cabaret and other Bob Fosse-style musicals flash before one's eyes.There are even a few resemblances to the musical "Oliver."After a while even Bricusse's lyrics start to echo his earlier work ("Who can I turn to?" and "Once In a Lifetime," to name two).

Despite the feeling that some of this is derivative, credit needs to go where credit is due: to the leads.As a centerpieces to theplot, the laboratory transformation scene from Jekyll to Hyde and his self-confrontation are cleverly and cleanly rendered by Chuck Wagner, who is in total vocal and physical control of this demanding dual role.His other love interest, Emma, played by Kelli O'Hara, is very strong in solos such as "Once Upon A Dream," as well as in her duets with Wagner ("Take Me As I Am") and with Brown("In His Eyes").

James Noone's postindustrial lab and his other iron-and-glass creations provide an appropriate and visually interesting backdrop for a variety of settings and transform the stage as quickly as director David Warren's mercurial set changes require.

Although there is much to enjoy about "Jekyll & Hyde," one wishes for an ending number that is the equal of at least half a dozen other songs preceding it.But more than this,one wishes that the script provided greater insight into the human interior, where it wishes to take us.More should be expected from a musical that pitches its camp between poles of good and evil.