Customer Reviews

Jekyll & Hyde - The Musical (1997 Original Broadway Cast)

5 star:		(107)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

To those who want to listen to a VERY captivating interpretation of "Someone Like You," get a copy of Miss Saigon star Lea Salonga's "The Broadway Concert" album. I've never heard anyone sing that song as beautifully as she does!

I saw the show twice on it's pre-Broadway tour. I was blown away. Robert Cuccioli performed Jekyll & Hyde superbly. It's a very physically demanding role and he accomplished it wonderfully. Linda Eder was fantastic. What a voice! I have this CD and I have the "Highlights", but the 2-CD set of The Complete Works of Jekyll & Hyde is far superior, plus there are many great additional and better performed songs. If you listen to all three different versions, you'll see what I mean. Anthony Warlow is Jekyll/Hyde. The current tour is as close to the 2-CD set at you can get. The Broadway cast version is great if you've seen the show on Broadway. It takes you back to the stage by visualizing it in the music. But it is very different than the current tour. Please buy the 2-CD set and compare. You won't be sorry.

Frank Wildhorn has created a phenomenal musical adventure with Jekyll & Hyde. Unfortunately, this album sounds like both the actors and musicians are just going through the motions. Even the great Linda Eder is just not at the top of her game on this recording. On the other hand, if you want to FEEL the passion and thrill of Jekyll & Hyde, get the 2-CD set of Jekyll & Hyde, The Gothic Musical Thriller (The Complete Works) (1994). You will hear one of, if not THE best recording ever of a Broadway Musical. It is truly extraordinary.

Also don't forget Martin Nievera's performance of Take Me As I Am with Asian singing sensation Regine Velasquez. They sang this as part of their Broadway Medley in their World Concert Tour (I saw the Los Angeles leg). The combination of their emotive and powerful voices was fantastic. I think their concert in now available on DVD.

i think the music in jekyll and hyde fits the show perfect. the songs stay low key and kinda eirie. Roisin said that this is the moment does not fit where it is because dr. jekyll is about to transform himself into hyde. if you know the story the dr. doesnt know that his experiment is going to go that far and turn him into something that evil. so the song really does fit cause dr. jekyll thinks he is acomplishing a his goal. its in a perfect spot. i had the plearsure of being in this show in our local community theatre and it really has some of the best ballads in a show. someone like you is beautiful, in his eyes is one of the shows best songs and is very powerful. linda eder sounds great and so does robert. this is a really good recording and show.

This CD is awesome. I was surprised how great the adaption was from the book. I never get bored listening to it. My little siblings also enjoy listening to a number of the songs. I think I listen to this CD a little too much for my own possible good. It's great!

After listening to the original concept CD for Jekyll and Hyde, this finalized Broadway version was an intense disappointment. The music lacked the richness and the haunting quality that made the original recording so memorable. This Broadway soundtrack is a watered-down version of its original, a shadow of the potential it had. It was shallow and, in many cases, boring, and lacked emotion and heart. Many of the best songs were either changed or -- as in the case of the fun-and-saucy "Bring On the Men" -- taken out completely. While Linda Eder is still in top form in this show, the rest of the cast lacked quite a bit, and the songs themselves left much to be desired. I kept the CD for a while, simply for a couple of the Linda Eder songs, but finally just got rid of it, preferring to listen to the other one.

Why do they always have to take a phenomenal show and then completely change it when they move it to Broadway? They've done so for several shows in the past, but with this one, it was almost criminal. The original concept would have made such a good production.

I can understand people who do not like Jekyll and Hyde. I can also understand people who love it (like me). I think you have to know all of the music before you can find it great. however, the show has a lot of potential for the Broadway. But what's this now? Let's start with the good things on this CD: Linda Eder (great, great, great!), Christiane Noll (the best Lisa (!!!) ever), nice arrangements, ultimate (that means the best) versions of: Someone like you, A New Life, In his Eyes, Once upon a Dream, Prologue. Now the bad things: Where's the originale prologue? I remember some talking... Great Songs like for example Alive were made more short. If you shorten that song, there's no fun about it's reprise! What has happened to I need to know? Lost in the Drakness is ridicoulos against it. Great Songs were cut (Bring on the Men) or replaced by songs which may not be all bad, but which don't fit in in this show at all (Good and Evil). And the worst: Robert Cuccioli!!! Why him? Why God? Sorry Bob, you're a nice singer, but you are NOT Jekyll/Hyde!!! His Performance is terrible and he doesn't give any atmosphere. My Advice: OBC ok ok, but if you like this Musical, buy the 1994 Concept Recording. It may have some very small "Mistakes" too, but it has got Anthony Warlow!!! He is reason enough to buy this and avoid the OBC...

It is wrong to dismiss "Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical" as a second-rate "Phantom of the Opera," mainly because they are so many second-rate "Phantoms" that are about the Gaston Leroux novel touring the country. Leslie Bricusse (book and lyrics) and Frank Wildhorn (music) spent the better part of the 1990's crafting this musical, and various incarnations are available on CD. The strongest similarity between this and Lloyd Webber's "Phantom" turns out to be that both musical were written specifically for a woman to perform, in this case Wildhorn's wife Linda Eder. The strength of this album is her performance as Lucy Harris, the young woman from "The Red Rat" who tempts both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I had already decided that all of the best songs belonged to Eder's character and that the way she sings puts Sarah Brightman to shame (and I do not think Brightman is a bad singer at all).

This is one of those near-great musicals that you want to give a 4.5 to and then agonize over whether to round up or round down. One of the problems is that the best songs for Jekyll/Hyde (Robert Cuccioloi) are so different, dramatic rather than lyrical for lack of better terms, compared to those given Lucy's character. The biggest flaw in this show happens to be with what is ironically its "hit" song, "This is the Moment," which Jekyll sings when he decides to go ahead with his experiments. The opening of the show establishes the doctor's driving desire to cure his father's mental illness and a suitably somber tone is established. But "This is the Moment" misses the mark at the pivotal moment and none of the problems belong to Cuccioli. Even if you have not heard this musical you have probably heard this song because it has been used for the Olympics. Indeed, it is perfectly suited for some Olympic athlete about to take the world stage for the biggest moment in their life. But Jekyll is more like Doctors Faustus and Frankenstein, about to make a terrible mistake that is going to get people killed. Any song about the moment to come would need to be painfully ironic to be appropriate, but this is a song about a nobility of purpose that overwhelms the horror story that is unfolding. It does not fit the rest of the show. I also sounds too modern, unlike the wonderfully atmospheric "Your Work - And Nothing More," which captures the period of the piece. That is why Cuccioli's best moment on the album comes with the dramatic "Confrontation" between his divided self.

Otherwise, Frank Wildhorn's certainly has its moments. Lucy's songs "No One Knows Who I Am," "Someone Like You" and "A New Life" are the finest in the show. "Letting Go," sung by Jekyll's fiancee Emma (Christiane Noll) and her father, has nice poigancy. The musical also offers up several duets that do nice jobs of advancing the story or capturing the characters, in fine operatic fashion, with Emma and Lucy's duet on "In His Eyes" is the best of those numbers. The ensemble pieces for the mob are serviceable, although "Facade" certainly invites comparisons to "Masquerade" from "Phantom," and the music for the transformation sequence would seamlessly fit any Universal horror film. Leslie Bricusse's lyrics work better on the ballads and ensemble pieces than the more dramatic ones. Lucy's decadent show piece "Good 'n' Evil" needs the wicked genius of a Stephen Sondheim to give it spice, but most of the rhymes are fairly predictable and it ends up being cute rather than clever.

The final comparison of some importance between "Jekyll & Hyde" and "Phantom" is that you need to be familiar with the specific stage actions. The best moments have to be appreciated in their contexts within the story, so if you have not had the advantage of seeing this musical performed on stage you need to familiarize with the song and story outline. Then you need to go out and see what other musical albums are graced by the dazzling voice of Linda Eder. She reminds me at times of a young Barbra Streisand in terms of technique and checking out her other albums I have quickly discovered I am no where nears being alone in making that observation.

I bought this recording after having had the double recording for a couple of years and seeing the show with both Robert Cucciolli and Robert Evan playing the leads. I am also a big fan of Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and own nearly every movie that was ever made bearing that title or having the theme of 'man's two natures'. And since buying this recording I have seen the show again with three more actors playiung the leads (including Joe Mahowald who does the best confrontation scene).

With that said, it should be obvious that you are dealing with a fan. On the music of this particular recording, I find that the lyrics are an improvement on the one's in the first double recording. The song Facade here has been broken up into sections to bridge the change between scenes, which works amazing well and is a fantastic improvement over the agaonizingly long Facade number in the first CD set. And although the song "I need to Know" was removed from this CD, the song that replaces it "Lost in The Darkness" is both more emotionally charged and furthers the story much better than "I Need To Know", though a great song in itself, ever could.

On Cucciolli, his singing here as Hyde is fantastic. His Hyde is genuinely scarely, and his voice projects that certain something that will give you the shivers when you here it. It's true that his Jekyll does sound a bit strained, but when the producers unfortunately scheduled to make the recording while he had a throat infection which actually removed him from the show for a few months. So I can forgive that, especially since his Hyde more than makes up for his weak tenor range.

It's also tru that the story used for the play is more true to the Hollywood movies made in the sixties and earlier than it is to the original story. However the character of Lucy the barmade seems to be taken directly from the original Frederick March version with Ivy the barmade. I personally have to give the women on this show credit for filling it out with some wonderful voices and talent. Theirs was especially important as the show was as much if not more focused on the romatic side of Jekyll and Hyde's life than on the personal struggle side. Their songs bring both comedy (Good and Evil), tragedy (Once Upon a Dream), hope (A New Life), and just a lighter touch. It's my feelings that their songs actually further the story much more than the men's songs do.

On the whole this is a fantastic CD, sung by fantistic preformers, and written by a pair of unbeatable composers who are thankfully helping to rid the Broadway scene of too much Andrew Lloyd Weber and Disney musical theater trash. Thank you Wildhorn!