Review: Jekyll and Hyde

You can listen to our feature on 'Jekyll and Hyde' on the ((URY PLAYER)) here.

Reviewed by David Brennan

This week saw central hall musical society spring term production of Jekyll and Hyde. With a history of great shows least forgetting last years’ fantastic production of Rent, aspirations were high for another incredible performance. Jekyll and Hyde was not to disappoint. The musical is an adaption of Robert Louis Stevenson’s original novella ”Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. It portrays the turmoil of a betrothed man, Dr Jekyll, as his research of separating the good and evil of ones soul is ignored by pompous aristocrats. This leads him to self experimentation causing a downward spiral to adultery and murder, as his experiments result in the separation of Dr Jekyll’s evil persona in the form of Mr. Hyde. A well chosen cast and excellent direction from Kat Kimms brought to life Frank Wildhorn & Leslie Bricusse score. The dark and moody stage setting comprised of multiple levels, adding a Victorian atmosphere and dynamic to the show. Draped on the scaffold set were red and black drapes all intermittent with white haunting masks and other symbols helping deliver the message of duality of the play.

The whole cast gave excellent performances with the group numbers of "Facade" and "Murder Murder" showing off the strength of the whole cast and power of the orchestra brilliantly. With particular excelent performances done by Luke De Belder as General Lord Glossop and Tom Jones as Bishop of Basingstoke. Show stopping performances where seen by both Ali Phillips as Dr Jekyll/Mr. Hyde and Florence Stratton as Lucy the prostitute, both only first years gave excellent singing and acting performances. As Ali gave at times a bit too severe Jekyll performance but was an excellent contrast to the animalistic character of Mr. Hyde this was best shown in "Confrontation" giving a truly skillful bipolar performance. This more than made up for an underwhelming performance of "This is the moment", but as this song is placed amongst a trio of Jekyll's technically demanding songs it’s understandable.

Florence gave an innocent and raunchy performance holding her multidimensional character together through a charming cockney accent, adding much needed energy and fun to an overall dark and serious musical. Anna Czornyj who plays Emma must also be mentioned for her flawless singing performance which shone through in her duet with Florence Stratton with "In his eyes".

The choreography was technically well thought out and effectively performed by dance core and chorus alike, with particular numbers like in "Bring on the men" and in the "Transformation" really bringing something special to the performance. However in places the dancing seemed a bit of a distraction from some of the actors interactions like in "Take me as I am". In general though the dancing was beautiful, enhance by the brilliant costumes, if only in large groups seemed a bit unpolished with mistiming from both dance core and chorus.

The production was slick with swift cast on and off stage movements, however backstage lighting when visible became distracting and could have been avoid with minimal lighting backstage. Also with some technical teething difficulties for example heavy feedback and microphones being left on making the audience privy to some backstage chatter, had the adverse effect of drawing the audience out of a very gripping story. Further work is also needed on the level of microphones and orchestra as in times it had the effect of overpowering the cast.  

Jekyll and Hyde is still gripping and brilliantly thought out having both intimate and open spaces on the stage working well with the musical’s diverse soundtrack. With comic relief in the form of exaggerated aristocrats and pushy barmaids, adding some fun to an all together serious and gripping musical. I feel everyone involved should be praised for providing an entertaining and moving show, with particular praise to the direction and management of Kat Timms, John Askew, Izzy Dixon and James Oliver, who in particular must be praised for getting such a large sound from a relatively small orchestra.   

And you can hear the review as part of YorWorld (along with an interview with multi-award winning comedian Milton Jones) on the ((URY PLAYER)) here