Jekyll & Hyde

Despite running well over three and half years in its initial Broadway run, Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse's musical adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic horror tale of a young scientist who uses himself as the guinea pig in an experiment to separate the good and evil in man and then proceeds to murder those who called him mad is regularly mocked as a prime example of Broadway ineptitude. And yet the show maintains a loyal following of fans.

The most impressive aspect of this MMY production is, without a doubt, its impressive core of ensemble members, particularly their singing. The team present strong characterisations within the crowd scenes and their emotions and mood contributed to creating the precise ambiance which twists and turns throughout the production.

Director Dan Jarvis had worked the principals and ensemble hard to understand and communicate their characters to a high standard though some obscure moments hadn’t been attended to, I’m not a fan of miming actions unless every action is mimed within the show. Poking an unlit fire without a prop just makes any actor look absurd and could’ve been so easily avoided in this instance. 

Given the nature of the show, the deaths could have been given more attention to have a more gruesome effect, a little tame for my liking. Quite a lot of dialogue was missed and I didn’t catch a single word muttered by some of the principals.

A standout highlight of the production was ‘The Confrontation’ which had been presented very well by Cameron, Joseph and of course Dan the director, if I wasn’t familiar with the show I’d have thought that the musical was intended for two actors to share the title role(s). Although I don’t agree that the role should be shared (in my opinion it completely defeats the shows purpose) I fully understand and appreciate the decision to share the part and felt the delivery of it was done extremely effectively.

The mammoth role of Dr Henry Jekyll was tackled by Cameron Hall who did a commendable job, this is a huge part (even with the role shared). Cameron exposed the innocence and kind nature of the character to great effect and coped with the score to a creditable degree.

Maddie Hudson played Emma, the fiancé of Dr Jekyll. Maddie offered a beautiful voice to her role with a classic musical theatre style accompanied with some modern lyrical influences which worked nicely given her character is quite ahead of her time. This was an effortless performance supported with her confident and gracious stage presence.

Taking the villain of the piece, Joseph Morgan presents us with the dark Mr Hyde, a strong actor and vocalist, though more attention to voice technique when speaking would have benefited his performance as a lot of his speech was missed.

Perhaps this is personal taste but I’d have preferred the Orchestra to have been louder during full company numbers, then turned down for underscoring. It’s very difficult to balance the sound given where the musicians are placed (behind the set at the back of the stage) which I do appreciate there is very little that can be done about that at Z-Arts. However, balancing does prove to be a persistent issue at this venue. Kimberly Holden led an able team of musicians through the 42 musical numbers with ease (or so it seemed from out front!).

Jess Thompson delivered the troubled Lucy, the brassy persona of her characterisation contrasted nicely against Maddie’s Emma and their duet “In His Eyes” was lovely. Although I’d describe this score as a modern classic I felt Jess’ use of pop techniques to accompany her numbers didn’t gel with the nature of the piece but there is no question she delivered a fighting performance.

John Utterson, played by David Beeby was a standout performer for me, he set the mood perfectly, I sensed the tone of the show from his opening narration and he demonstrated a clear understanding of his character. One to watch!

The set looked attractive and worked to accompany the scenes and convey locations though the changes were quite tiresome given the quantity of them and the length of time they took which did, sadly, hinder the shows pace quite drastically.

Overall, this was an impressive debut production as Manchester Musical Youth, many congratulations to the entire cast, committee and production team. This group of youngsters is bursting with an immense level of talent and is unquestionably shaping the stars of tomorrow!

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