THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603010070
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines
BROADWAY WILL just have to wait. For the time being, ``Jekyll & Hyde'' - both sides of him - will be in Norfolk. The contemporary musical version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic opens at Chrysler Hall on Tuesday.
Besides being a rare pre-Broadway booking, it's the second Gothic-era thriller to roll into town, following ``The Phantom of the Opera's'' record-breaking, $6 million-plus run - a phenomenon that benefitted downtown restaurants, hotels and businesses.
Unlike ``Phantom's'' advance seal of approval, ``Jekyll and Hyde,'' an adventurous booking that won't reach Broadway until at least October, has ``new'' stamped all over it.
The lyrics are by Oscar-winner Leslie Bricusse, with music by Frank Wildhorn. The evolving star of the piece has turned out to be Linda Eder, who sings the role of Lucy, the woebegone prostitute. Critics have hailed her as ``the new Streisand.''
Robert Cuccioli, who starred as Javert in ``Les Miserables'' on Broadway, has the important double role of the title. But where his on-screen predecessors made the transformation with special effects, he has to suggest the physical and psychological changes before a live audience. No one has ever done it while singing.
Subtitled ``The Musical Thriller,'' the production had its beginnings six years ago in Houston's Alley Theater. After a sold-out run, it was restaged for bigger houses. Prospective producers rushed to the theaters, resulting in the current $2 million, 39-city tour.
While the show is new, many ticketbuyers already are familiar with the music. A recording of the entire show, with Australian star Anthony Warlow in the lead, was released several years ago. One song, ``This Is the Moment,'' has been used in Olympic ice-skating competition and the Miss America contest. It's even been heard at the Super Bowl.
The most famous name on the team is lyricist Bricusse, who has been represented on Broadway with ``Stop the World, I Want to Get Off'' and ``The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd.'' For the movies, he composed the Oscar-winning song ``Talk to the Animals'' from ``Dr. Doolittle'' and ``The Candy Man,'' Sammy Davis Jr.'s hit from ``Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.'' He also wrote the music for ``Goodbye Mr. Chips'' and ``Goldfinger.''
But the driving force, the man supplying the contemporary beat designed to attract younger audiences, is composer Wildhorn. He wrote ``Where Do Broken Hearts Go?'' for Whitney Houston and teamed with Bricusse to write new material for the current Julie Andrews Broadway musical ``Victor/Victoria.''
Wildhorn already has two other musical versions of literary classics waiting in the wings, ``Svengali'' and ``The Scarlet Pimpernel.'' ``Jekyll & Hyde,'' though, is on the Broadway front-bunner.
``All my other work will be led by this show. It has to come first,'' he has said.
It all began 111 years ago on a cold winter night in Bournemouth, England, when Robert Louis Stevenson got royally miffed after his wife awoke him from a nightmare.
``You have just broken off a fine bogey tale,'' he told her. That nasty dream, of course, became one of the most popular horror tales of all literature, ``The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.''
Less than a year after its publication in 1886, Richard Mansfield performed in a London stage adaptation. Thespians and moviemakers have been interpreting it since - resulting in some pretty weird concoctions.
New York's Ridiculous Theater Company created a ``camp'' version with wigs and cross-dressing galore. David Edgar, who adapted Charles Dickens' ``Nicholas Nickleby'' into a marathon, eight-hour production, did a serious version for the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was less successful.
The first film was in 1912, with two actors taking the parts of Jekyll and Hyde. The John Barrymore silent movie came in 1920, resulting in scenery-chewing of the highest order.
But the best screen version was released in 1932. Directed by Rouben Mamoulian, it won an Academy Award for Fredric March.
Spencer Tracy got his turn in 1941, with Ingrid Bergman as the naughty Lucy and Lana Turner as the good girl. At the time, it was regarded as daring reverse casting. Tracy understated the role in a way that was a remarkable change from the earlier histrionics. It was not as popular with audiences or critics.
Through the years, the movies have gone wild with the premise of man's evil side, sometimes loosening it up to include sex changes and Freudian possibilities.
Remember Louis Hayward as ``Son of Dr. Jekyll'' in 1951 or Boris Karloff in ``Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' in 1953? Gloria Talbot played the daughter of Dr. Jekyll in 1957.
There was ``Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde'' in 1973, Bernie Casie in 1976's ``Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde'' and Oliver Reed in ``Dr. Hekyl and Mr. Hype'' (1980). Michael Caine and Kirk Douglas (in TV movies) Anthony Perkins (``Edge of Sanity'') and Christopher Lee (``I Monster'') have all taken turns.
Tim Daly and Sean Young starred in last year's ``Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde.'' Julia Roberts plays Dr. Jekyll's moon-eyed maid in the current bore, ``Mary Reilly.''
Now, Jekyll and Hyde are being reset to a modern beat.
Let the music begin. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
CAROL ROSEGG
Robert Cuccioli has the important double role of the title.
Photos
The 1932 film starring Frederic March, above and below, is the best
screen version of the Robert Louis Stevenson story.
by CNB