Jekyll and Hyde: A Review
I had the opportunity to see Jekyll and Hyde at Quad City Music Guild this past weekend. It was excellent.
Directed by Heather Herkelman, music directed by David Baxter, Jekyll and Hyde tells the story of Dr. Henry Jekyll, an ambitious chemist and researcher who comes up with a compound that he believes can separate evil, and perhaps even eliminate it, from good in a person. But he needs a test subject.
He goes before a board to present his claims at the beginning of the show. Taylor Bley brings an immense amount of talent to the title dual roles of Dr. Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde.
At the outset of the play, we have Dr. Henry Jekyll. He's done some research on chemical compounds. He believes that he has an antidote to evil, and he has this quixotic desire to go before a committee to get approval, maybe even funding. He's zelaous. He's driven. Maybe even a little obsessed. But I don't view him as nuts. He watched his father in his disintegration to insanity due to mental illness and wither away in an asylum. Jekyll seeks to find cures to madness.
This play is set in a cynical world where he gets laughed off the stage. The one person on this committee who may have had some sympathy for Dr. Jekyll is Sir Danvers Carew. Danvers has visited the asylum with Jekyll, when he made a house call to check on the condition of his father. Danvers is nervous about Jekyll playing God. But he knows his intentions are clear. So rather than vote him down, making it unanimous, he abstains.
It is also worth noting that Danvers is the father of Dr. Jekyll's fianceé, Emma Carew. And it's entirely possible that his daughter has bent his ear and asked him to go easy on Jekyll. Emma loves Henry unconditionally. Megan Warren was superb as Emma. She has a clear, beautiful soprano voic,e and was nimbly able to navigate between soprano and alto registers. She seamlessly switches from her chest voice to head voice. Also, she's good at playing the clear-headed but innocent character, the one who is knowing of the risks and perils her soon to be husband is taking upon himself in his scientific research, but kindly tries to see the best possible outcome along with him, standing by his side even as his dark impulses start to reveal himself.
Taylor Bley gives a tour de force performance. I have enjoyed his singing since Billy Elliott. He's an upstanding citizen who tries substances that are completely untested, and when he ingests them, his body and mind have no possible way of preparing themselves for the effect. He is capable of pivoting very abruptly between Jekyll and Hyde. This of course is called for in such musical numbers as "Streak of Madness" and "Angst."
He develops Edward Hyde. By the end of the first act, Hyde acts on all of the lesser qualities, the evil impulses, the snippiness, the desire for score-settling and retribution, the cynicism, the doomsday mentality that you associate with the likes of, well, for the sake of argument, the 45th president of the United States.
Everything he meant to overcome, in himself, he accidentally lets out.
My Grandpa Richard once said that there's a little good and a little bad in everyone. And Jekyll and Hyde are the perfect metaphor for that.
Ariela Policastro plays Lucy Harris. She is an exotic dancer at the Red Rat. This is the club to which Henry Jekyll goes for his bachelor party with his best friend, John Utterson. Lucy leads the other exotic dancers in the big production number "Bring On the Men." She sings about being a seductress. She sings about having men in her bed. She's a lady of the night. But it should not be forgotten that she is a mistreated woman.
I distinctly remember in the 2004 version of Jekyll and Hyde, there was a character named Spider. He was the proprietor of the Red Rat, and he took a significant amount of the income off the top for all of his dancers and escorts. I remember him violently slapping Lucy in that version. The character of Spider was representative of the unclean man. He was the man who subverted women work the streets and gain money to meet his own selfish needs. He's emblematic of the characters that Edward Hyde will relish in wiping out in his murder spree in the 2nd half.
I appreciated that Ariela could pivot to sweetness. She may have her first encounter with Taylor Bley as Edward Hyde. But she only has eyes for Jekyll.
Jekyll is Jekyll when he slips out to visit her in her boardinghouse later on, though. Not only is Henry Jekyll torn between his own identity and Edward Hyde. So she sees the real Henry, the decent Henry.
Just as Emma sees through to the real and decent Henry.
My absolute favorite song in this production is "In His Eyes." It is a song with solos split between Megan Warren as Emma and Ariela Policastro as Lucy Harris. Both sing of what goodness and decency Jekyll brings to the world, and how they feel loved looking in his eyes. Megan has a soft-hearted, ethereal soprano. Ariela has a mezzo-soprano bordering on alto with strength, breath support, and beauty. Both emote very, very well.
Of course, a tempest awaits. Jekyll spends long nights in his laboratory. His friend, John, (Joel Kolander, a great stage presence) begs him to stop stealing away to work with his colleague, "Edward," and return to his long-suffering wife. Like Emma, though, he believes Henry's lies, and he runs his errands. And John will have to make a terrible choice at the end of the play, one that Obi-Wan Kenobe had to make with Anakin Skywalker at the end of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Do I choose to see this man as redeemable? Or do I slay the gentleman along with the beast because that's not how the gentleman would want to be remembered?
Mark McGinn is great in the role he played eighteen years ago. Happily, he didn't get knocked around as much. In '04, Jekyll laid him out with a massive punch. Of course, in the '04 version, half the cast practically qualified for a visit to Urgent Care for the stage combat they endured.
On that note, great fight choreography by Denise Yoder. She works with injured athletes at Augustana. She knew how to choreograph murders without them coming to actual injury for the actors.
Great direction by Heather Herkelman. And Kathryn Weber as Assistant Director was a great sidekick. I was happy to see David Baxter in the pit conducting the orchestra.
It should be mentioned that Luke Vermeire, in his 3rd set design of just this year, handed us one of his best yet; an ambient, haunting, dark vision of London in the 1800's, filled with noir and dread.
Great work with the lighting and sound by John Weigandt and Mike Turczynski. The lights had a very intimate relationship with the actors. Especially noticeable in "This is the Moment," any of Jekyll and Hyde's other songs, and "In His Eyes." As far as the sound, Mike had sound effects that made the murders sound pretty real. The actors seemed to relish the chance to die dramatically onstage. And why wouldn't they if they had the bone crunching, throat slitting, and neck snapping sounds to go with them?
The stage really is adult play time. It's what we used to do at recess in grade school, only on a grander stage, with production value, costume, and lines, songs, and dances to learn. We're adults having fun putting on a show, beating each other up, dancing lascaviously , and showing off our pitched pipes!
Costumes by Connie McGinn were evocative of the period as well as the requisite gloom of the gritty streets of London.
Okay, forgot to mention Robert Elfine as assistant musicdirector, Marni Turczynski on props, Trinity Filut as Tehcnical Assistant, and Christina Myatt as producer.
If I forgot to mention anybody, it's because I have to go run to help my mom pull weeds at my house. Great job, cast and crew of Jekyll and Hyde!
As an audience, we may have completely given up on Jekyll. We may have thrown in the towel that he's going to give himself over to evil. But there are characters who love him. And that really is the human experience. Just the possibility of love winning out, that's why we continue to fight to save people. We show up again and again to try to resuscitate, rescue, and redeem friends and loved ones. Just the effort to heal a person is the cause to which this show pays tribute. And I loved it.
You have four more chances to see Jekyll and Hyde at Quad City Music Guild, tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday (11th, 12th, and 13th) at 7:30 pm, plus a Sunday matinee (2 pm).
https://qcmusicguild.com/
Here is the website. Or you can call (309)762-6610.
Directed by Heather Herkelman, music directed by David Baxter, Jekyll and Hyde tells the story of Dr. Henry Jekyll, an ambitious chemist and researcher who comes up with a compound that he believes can separate evil, and perhaps even eliminate it, from good in a person. But he needs a test subject.
He goes before a board to present his claims at the beginning of the show. Taylor Bley brings an immense amount of talent to the title dual roles of Dr. Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde.
At the outset of the play, we have Dr. Henry Jekyll. He's done some research on chemical compounds. He believes that he has an antidote to evil, and he has this quixotic desire to go before a committee to get approval, maybe even funding. He's zelaous. He's driven. Maybe even a little obsessed. But I don't view him as nuts. He watched his father in his disintegration to insanity due to mental illness and wither away in an asylum. Jekyll seeks to find cures to madness.
This play is set in a cynical world where he gets laughed off the stage. The one person on this committee who may have had some sympathy for Dr. Jekyll is Sir Danvers Carew. Danvers has visited the asylum with Jekyll, when he made a house call to check on the condition of his father. Danvers is nervous about Jekyll playing God. But he knows his intentions are clear. So rather than vote him down, making it unanimous, he abstains.
It is also worth noting that Danvers is the father of Dr. Jekyll's fianceé, Emma Carew. And it's entirely possible that his daughter has bent his ear and asked him to go easy on Jekyll. Emma loves Henry unconditionally. Megan Warren was superb as Emma. She has a clear, beautiful soprano voic,e and was nimbly able to navigate between soprano and alto registers. She seamlessly switches from her chest voice to head voice. Also, she's good at playing the clear-headed but innocent character, the one who is knowing of the risks and perils her soon to be husband is taking upon himself in his scientific research, but kindly tries to see the best possible outcome along with him, standing by his side even as his dark impulses start to reveal himself.
Taylor Bley gives a tour de force performance. I have enjoyed his singing since Billy Elliott. He's an upstanding citizen who tries substances that are completely untested, and when he ingests them, his body and mind have no possible way of preparing themselves for the effect. He is capable of pivoting very abruptly between Jekyll and Hyde. This of course is called for in such musical numbers as "Streak of Madness" and "Angst."
He develops Edward Hyde. By the end of the first act, Hyde acts on all of the lesser qualities, the evil impulses, the snippiness, the desire for score-settling and retribution, the cynicism, the doomsday mentality that you associate with the likes of, well, for the sake of argument, the 45th president of the United States.
Everything he meant to overcome, in himself, he accidentally lets out.
My Grandpa Richard once said that there's a little good and a little bad in everyone. And Jekyll and Hyde are the perfect metaphor for that.
Ariela Policastro plays Lucy Harris. She is an exotic dancer at the Red Rat. This is the club to which Henry Jekyll goes for his bachelor party with his best friend, John Utterson. Lucy leads the other exotic dancers in the big production number "Bring On the Men." She sings about being a seductress. She sings about having men in her bed. She's a lady of the night. But it should not be forgotten that she is a mistreated woman.
I distinctly remember in the 2004 version of Jekyll and Hyde, there was a character named Spider. He was the proprietor of the Red Rat, and he took a significant amount of the income off the top for all of his dancers and escorts. I remember him violently slapping Lucy in that version. The character of Spider was representative of the unclean man. He was the man who subverted women work the streets and gain money to meet his own selfish needs. He's emblematic of the characters that Edward Hyde will relish in wiping out in his murder spree in the 2nd half.
I appreciated that Ariela could pivot to sweetness. She may have her first encounter with Taylor Bley as Edward Hyde. But she only has eyes for Jekyll.
Jekyll is Jekyll when he slips out to visit her in her boardinghouse later on, though. Not only is Henry Jekyll torn between his own identity and Edward Hyde. So she sees the real Henry, the decent Henry.
Just as Emma sees through to the real and decent Henry.
My absolute favorite song in this production is "In His Eyes." It is a song with solos split between Megan Warren as Emma and Ariela Policastro as Lucy Harris. Both sing of what goodness and decency Jekyll brings to the world, and how they feel loved looking in his eyes. Megan has a soft-hearted, ethereal soprano. Ariela has a mezzo-soprano bordering on alto with strength, breath support, and beauty. Both emote very, very well.
Of course, a tempest awaits. Jekyll spends long nights in his laboratory. His friend, John, (Joel Kolander, a great stage presence) begs him to stop stealing away to work with his colleague, "Edward," and return to his long-suffering wife. Like Emma, though, he believes Henry's lies, and he runs his errands. And John will have to make a terrible choice at the end of the play, one that Obi-Wan Kenobe had to make with Anakin Skywalker at the end of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Do I choose to see this man as redeemable? Or do I slay the gentleman along with the beast because that's not how the gentleman would want to be remembered?
Mark McGinn is great in the role he played eighteen years ago. Happily, he didn't get knocked around as much. In '04, Jekyll laid him out with a massive punch. Of course, in the '04 version, half the cast practically qualified for a visit to Urgent Care for the stage combat they endured.
On that note, great fight choreography by Denise Yoder. She works with injured athletes at Augustana. She knew how to choreograph murders without them coming to actual injury for the actors.
Great direction by Heather Herkelman. And Kathryn Weber as Assistant Director was a great sidekick. I was happy to see David Baxter in the pit conducting the orchestra.
It should be mentioned that Luke Vermeire, in his 3rd set design of just this year, handed us one of his best yet; an ambient, haunting, dark vision of London in the 1800's, filled with noir and dread.
Great work with the lighting and sound by John Weigandt and Mike Turczynski. The lights had a very intimate relationship with the actors. Especially noticeable in "This is the Moment," any of Jekyll and Hyde's other songs, and "In His Eyes." As far as the sound, Mike had sound effects that made the murders sound pretty real. The actors seemed to relish the chance to die dramatically onstage. And why wouldn't they if they had the bone crunching, throat slitting, and neck snapping sounds to go with them?
The stage really is adult play time. It's what we used to do at recess in grade school, only on a grander stage, with production value, costume, and lines, songs, and dances to learn. We're adults having fun putting on a show, beating each other up, dancing lascaviously , and showing off our pitched pipes!
Costumes by Connie McGinn were evocative of the period as well as the requisite gloom of the gritty streets of London.
Okay, forgot to mention Robert Elfine as assistant musicdirector, Marni Turczynski on props, Trinity Filut as Tehcnical Assistant, and Christina Myatt as producer.
If I forgot to mention anybody, it's because I have to go run to help my mom pull weeds at my house. Great job, cast and crew of Jekyll and Hyde!
As an audience, we may have completely given up on Jekyll. We may have thrown in the towel that he's going to give himself over to evil. But there are characters who love him. And that really is the human experience. Just the possibility of love winning out, that's why we continue to fight to save people. We show up again and again to try to resuscitate, rescue, and redeem friends and loved ones. Just the effort to heal a person is the cause to which this show pays tribute. And I loved it.
You have four more chances to see Jekyll and Hyde at Quad City Music Guild, tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday (11th, 12th, and 13th) at 7:30 pm, plus a Sunday matinee (2 pm).
https://qcmusicguild.com/
Here is the website. Or you can call (309)762-6610.