Throughout its seven-year trip to Broadway, Jekyll & Hyde has become the musical critics love to hate. They bash the Frank Wildhorn-Leslie Bricusse show for its rudimentary lyrics, pop-music sensationalism and episodic structure. Valid as the gripes may be, these complainers end up focusing on a few gawky trees and missing the dark, inviting forest. There really is no need for a new version of Robert Louis Stevenson's story of good battling evil -- except to give an actor a juicy role and an audience a thrilling ride. Bricusse's libretto stops making sense in act two (why does Jekyll's friend, upon learning the horrifying truth, leave the psycho alone to go out and kill again?) but pushes the plot forward with gusto and little fuss. Thus, Jekyll & Hyde has musical drama and drama in its music.
Hyde's pop-with-a-shmear tunes aren't my beaker of tea, but songs and story are told with absolute passion and conviction. From first minute to last, every character on the stage is fiercely alive, making it impossible to sit back with ho-hum eyes. If Bricusse's craft hasn't improved much after his mediocre work on Victor/Victoria, at least here the material has the force of its convictions.
