“It’s such a fine line, between a good man and a… bad…” Dr. Jekyll I imagine to the uninitiated, the idea of turning the story of “Jekyll & Hyde” into a musical sounds rather strange. After all, aren’t musicals supposed to be light and frothy, causing you to leave the theatre humming a happy tune? Those of us, who are a little more familiar with musical theatre, know that it is a place ripe for murder and things that go bump in the night. After all, is it any stranger than a musical based on a Phantom living in a Paris Opera, a student insurrection in France, or the sinking of the Titanic? Why not use the musical stage to tell the story of Dr. Jekyll, who wants nothing more than to utilize his experiments to separate the good and evil within man, in order to save his deranged father? What better way to express the anguish of his dual identity than through song?

"Jekyll & Hyde" was originally conceived for the stage by Frank Wildhorn and Steve Cuden. Legendary lyricist, Leslie Bricusse came on board a few years later and in 1990, the show had a fairly lengthy and highly successful workshop at the Alley Theatre in Houston. There was talk of bringing the show to Broadway, but at the time it was not to be. It went through a series of re-writes, and in 1995 mounted a 34-city tour that culminated with the show finally opening on Broadway in 1997. It became the longest running show in the history of the Plymouth Theatre, and made stars of Robert Cuccioli (J&H), Linda Eder (Lucy) and Christiane Noll (Emma).

If there is any one rule that applies to “Jekyll & Hyde, it is that ‘the only thing constant is change.’ As it went from workshop, to pre-Broadway tour, to Broadway and then back to tour, there were a huge number of changes. Staging was different, songs came and went, and kind of like the proverbial box of chocolates, you never knew what you were gonna get. When most National Tour productions of a Broadway Musical are created, they try to re-create the staging as you would see it in New York as closely as possible. Not so with “Jekyll & Hyde.” When it began its post-Broadway Tour, once again the show was completely re-staged and new sets designed. Yet through all these changes, what remained was the passion.

The music of “Jekyll & Hyde” rates amongst the best written for the musical stage. Of course if you take into consideration what the critics have had to say about the show, you’d never believe it. But what do they know? Though it was often critically panned, the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Audiences raved, songs like “This Is The Moment” and “Someone Like You” became huge hits, and it produced an extremely loyal fan-base, known affectionately as ‘Jekkies.’ It has also gone on to achieve worldwide acclaim with German, Swedish, Spanish, and Japanese productions, just to name a few.

When I have the opportunity to see the show, I generally jump at the chance. Having seen so many professional productions, I had wanted desperately to catch it done at a more local level. I'd keep an eye out on the official J&H Website to see who was doing it, and waited for a listing to show up here in Texas. About a month ago, I saw that a small theatre group in Conroe, Texas (about 45 minutes outside of Houston) was going to brave this most difficult of musicals. I contacted the theatre to find out a little bit more and within days made plans to drive 3 ½ hours to see it.

It was with a mixture of excitement and hesitation that I made the drive from Dallas to Conroe. I was excited to be getting the opportunity to see the show again, the last time being the 10th Anniversary production in Houston a couple of years ago, but I was hesitant because of the possibility that I might be a bit disappointed. Sometimes community theatres offer shows far superior to their professional counterparts, other times… well… I'll just leave it at that.

Part of the problem was that I knew the show too well, having seen various versions of it over the years. I would have to fight any and all urges to compare, as comparison is generally unfair. I knew I would be sitting with people who more than likely have never seen, or even heard of the show. So, that said, I decided to do my level best to mentally critique this version of show with as little comparison as possible. What I was hoping for was that I would see a group of actors who realized the challenges of mounting the show, a lead actor who knew that his one of Broadway's most difficult characters to play, and a level of enthusiasm that you only get from people who act because they love to do it, not because it is their job.

Arriving in Conroe, my wife and I made tracks to find the theatre that housed The Crighton Players. Much to my delight, unlike most of the community theatres in Dallas (which tend to be in old abandoned warehouses), The Crighton Theatre was an honest to gosh theatre. I learned later that it had originally been built back in 1935, closing its doors in the mid-sixties… a victim of the growing number of modern movie theatres. In 1979, it was donated to the county with the stipulation that it be restored and maintained. Due to the theatre's condition, the massive undertaking of restoration began with help from members of the Little Theatre of Conroe, local businesses and an entire community of local folks.

Needless to say when the doors opened and we walked into the auditorium, we were floored. This wasn't some small nickel and dime operation. It felt like I had been transported back in time, the restoration job was so beautiful, from floor to ceiling. We spent a good 40 minutes looking over every inch of the place, wondering what the show itself held in store for us.

As it turned out, my wife and I got almost everything we hoped for, and the overall quality of the show exceeded our expectations. Considering that everything would have to be scaled down to fit a community sized theatre and budget, Director Marty Craig did a fantastic job of putting the whole show together, from the blocking to the choreography. And the set design by Chris Thomas and Ron Craig was extremely well done. The backdrops, which were painted to give the impression of being the back streets of London were eye-catching as was interior of The Red Rat Saloon. I was also very impressed with Jekyll's Laboratory / Study set. Both were side by side on the stage, which could have presented a problem with the blocking, but here they handled it well. The Laboratory alone was awesome looking with its table full of bubbling chemicals. I also need to throw out a nod to the costume designer Lynn Peverill, whose costumes were gorgeous.

But where the show really shone was in the hoped for enthusiasm of the entire cast. Knowing full well that most of the actors and singers would not be professionals, I expected to hear a ton of flat notes and planned to forgive them as much as I could. Surprisingly though, there were only a few noticeable flat notes to be heard that night. What I did notice, and this might have been more a problem of the sound system than the performers, was a lack of power. Most of the voices were good, but they didn’t project off the stage. This is not to say I couldn’t hear them, everyone was clear as a bell, but it was like the songs hit the end of the stage and just stopped.

As much as I'd like to give each and every member of the cast their due, time only allows me to focus in on a few. Suffice to say overall, the entire cast was terrific, and in the ensemble songs, they were dead on perfect.

Stepping into the dual role of the good Dr. Jekyll and the evil Mr. Hyde was David Troth. In reading the program, I saw that he had previously performed Huck Finn in "Big River" and the Dentist in "Little Shop of Horrors", so I had a feeling he would have the chops to pull it off. And pull it off he did. His voice was certainly much better than you might usually expect in a community theatre production. There were a few times where he seemed like he might have been a little nervous (and who could blame him haven taken on such a difficult role) and handful of the power notes hit slightly softer than they should have, but I could tell he could hit them if he just cut loose. Every one of his spotlight songs, from "I Need to Know" to "This is the Moment" sounded great.

As for his performance from an acting standpoint, he did an awesome job. In fact, a lot of the show's few humorous lines (yes… there are some…) always seemed to get lost on the Broadway stage, but Troth delivered them with just the right hint of sarcasm eliciting laughter from the audience at all the right times. The most difficult trick to playing this role is that the two characters, Jekyll & Hyde, have to be so diametrically opposed. Physically, this was always done on stage without makeup simply by the letting down of Jekyll's ponytail. The rest of the transformation was up to the actor's mannerism's and voice. Troth delivered the duality with aplomb, obviously enjoying his opportunities to be evil. Its easy to overplay these differences to the point of parody, but Troth steadily walked that fine line.

Where this was most evident was in the final song, "Confrontation", where the two meet 'face to face.' On stage this is played by pulling Jekyll's hair back on the actor's left side, while leaving it down and straggly on the right side. The actor then turns fully from side to side, giving the impression of a 'face off.' This is probably the most complicated scene of the show and I've seen actors do it… very… badly. The timing has to be perfect or it becomes laughable. Troth did not make me laugh. He did an excellent job.

The other two main leads of the show are Emma Carew (Jekyll's fiancé) and Lucy (the prostitute with a heart o' gold). Natul Middlebrook took on the role of Emma, and physically she looked the part, lovely and slightly meek, but played it with just the right hint of independence. It was obvious that Middlebrook had a really good voice, and there were times that it sounded quite beautiful. But there were a few too many times that she was a little off key. I'll grant you that Emma's songs are in a very difficult range, but she should have brought them down a little.

Jennice Walter in the role of Lucy, was another matter altogether. From the moment she took the stage… well, she took the stage. Walter has a very powerful voice (again a necessity for Lucy's songs) and her performance of "Bring on the Men" was full of exactly the right amount of sexy bravado, making me want to yell out 'NO' right along with the ensemble to the song's question about her lust for men "…I want 'em all… is that a crime?" She performed the character with a lot of playfulness, which begged the audience to love her… right up until her final moments in the show. And not to give away any spoilers, her final scene with Hyde was… how should I say it… perfect.

Once again, I have to give the Crighton Players a tremendous amount of credit for even attempting to perform "Jekyll & Hyde." They had so many hurdles to get over, including the overall complexity of the show, the challenging songs, and the extremely dark style of the show. I imagine some of the audience members in a town like Conroe would be used to lighter, more happy productions like "Mister Roberts" or "The Music Man." I would have been afraid a show full of hideous murders wouldn't have gone over well. But it was obvious they approached the show with the aforementioned enthusiasm and the audience I was sitting in appeared to totally get into it.

In the end, my wife and I had a great time and found the show well worth the 3 ½ hour drive there (and back the same night!!!).

Jekyll & Hyde is playing at the Crighton Theatre in Conroe, Texas Thru June 17th

Directed by: Marty Craig
Starring: David Troth, Natul Middlebrook, Jennice Walter
Travis Bryant, Harold Murphy, Don Johnson, Terry Woods, Sean Ferrat, Barbara Polnick, Chris Thomas, Dale Trimble, Creg Kelly, Gene Polnick, Carol Lenz, Mike Regan, Michael Read, Bill Garland, Sherry LaBelle, April Alzamora, Terry Woods, Lee Abernathy, Maggie McCartney, Debbie Reed, Bille Bruley, Morgan Freeman, Kim Bryant, Amy Stewart, Connie Anthony, Heidi Coogler, Bette Garland, Julia Johnson, Amber Jamison, Sara Soland
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