Review of Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical

I love this musical. I am a huge fan of all things Jekyll and Hyde (particularly the original novella by Robert Louise Stevenson) but this production of the musical really did not work. I sometimes get out my copy and watch it for a laugh just because David Hasselhoff is so bad. David seemed to have a lot of potential, don't get me wrong. He looks great as both Jekyll and Hyde and his acting even was OK, although it was a little too hammed up for my taste. The problem is his singing. It seems as though he is racing the orchestra, who are having trouble keeping up with him. Because of this, all meaning in the lyrics is stripped away and the songs are left as merely a shell of what they should be. His style of singing is also a tad strange. His notes just don't sound right. It also seems that he relied more on lighting and hair to differentiate between the characters of Jekyll and Hyde. However, like I said before, when he is acting without singing he's not all that bad, though I doubt he would do a better job than Bob Cuccioli or most other Broadway leading men who have taken the part. The rest of the cast do a fine job but it seems that none have that great a grasp on their characters. A real problem is accents. None of the accents sound quite right and it is really irritating. The best performance would have to be from Coleen Sexton as Lucy. She sounded great, looked great and acted OK.

The set and lighting of the production are quite impressive and each do a good job of setting the mood of the production. The orchestra is great but unfortunately has the hard task of keeping up with Hasselhoff (maybe after all the slow motion in Baywatch he took a vow to do everything at super speeds.) This production is worth seeing for any fan of the musical who is yet to see a professional production of it but I refuse to believe it is the best that Broadway has to offer of Jekyll and Hyde.