It's been over a year since I updated this blog. I don't consume film like I used to, and certainly not new releases. It's time for a new direction.
Whether this results in an expression of imagination, a pursuit of validation for my creative thought, or a treatise that goes viral (the thought of which is pretty laughable)... here goes.
I've never really enjoyed the term 'critic' - if I had my way, I would have been something of a ‘consulting director,’ or ‘consulting dramaturg,’ as Sherlock Holmes is a ‘consulting detective.’ I should like to enter, en medias res, say my piece, and set it on its way to success. Nothing crushes my soul like potential unfulfilled. Whether it’s a child, a software change, or a production, missed opportunities can be heartbreaking.
There have been seven recordings for Jekyll & Hyde since 1987, with waves of cult followers and a relentless push for productions ever since. We all know there’s something there. It was optioned for a film back in 2013 - Jekyll & Hyde has the potential to be one of the great movie musicals, just not as it stands.
Look at the BBC’s Ripper Street. Read Daniel Lavine’s novel Hyde, return to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The infamous novella follows an unusual narrative, shifting narrators, referencing documents - elements that have made Pride and Prejudice difficult to adapt, as well as Dangerous Liaisons. Choosing the story you want to tell is fundamentally important, and yet straying too far from Stevenson will also cause us to lose sight of the timeless Shakespearean advice: “Brevity is the soul of wit.”
There are lessons to be learned from theatrical predecessors and successors. Among them: faithfulness to the original text. Les Miserables is extraordinarily similar to the massive novel, and of course, also started as a pop-rock musical; My Fair Lady is virtually identical to its source drama; the obnoxiously irrepressible Rent matches La Boeheme act for act; Frankenstein, adapted by Nick Dear is a poetic and evocative adaptation of the novel; Once, adapted from the film, is so true to the spirit of the film, and the story, that the changes become negligible.
That being said, the film version of Jekyll & Hyde must have a more taut, riveting story. I've eliminated Emma in my version - she's unnecessary. Revisionists should also consider spoken dialogue to replace the sung scenes. The dichotomy of the main character’s identities requires the split between spoken word and sung lyric. Were I influential enough, I would recruit Nick Dear to script the scenes. Reunite him with Frankenstein director Danny Boyle. Talk to Luke Evans for the lead.
Just give me a "special thanks" credit, and maybe a set visit.
----------------------------------------------------------
Suggested Song List
ACT I
Prologue
Pursue the Truth
Facade
Bring on the Men
Facade - Reprise (London)
Now There is no Choice
First Transformation
Alive
Good and Evil
Dangerous Game
Alive (Reprise)
ACT II
*Facade - Reprise (East End)
The Way Back
Murder, Murder
Your Work and Nothing More
Lost in the Darkness
Facade - Reprise (Whispers)
Obsession
Confrontation
Finale
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Edward Hyde
Atty. John Utterson
Dr. Hastie Lanyon
Lucy
Ensemble
ACT I
Extend the Prologue, for a more traditional overture.
Operating amphitheater, London, 1886. End of a lecture. Utterson, Lanyon, and Jekyll are leaving, other attendees mingling, among them Sir Danvers Carew. Utterson, Lanyon, and Jekyll are schoolmates.
Utterson
Reminds me of our school lectures, though I don’t recall the pain in my lower back…
Lanyon
It’s the wooden benches! After twenty-five years, even a judge would feel it.
Utterson
Remind me to bring a cushion to the next one!
Jekyll is withdrawn, contemplating the lecture. He is approached by Sir Danvers Carew, who introduces himself, claiming to have mutual interests and connections to funding for experimental research. Carew encourages Jekyll to keep in touch, sensing that he feels confined by the limitations of conventional science. Utterson, skeptical of the newcomer, intervenes, and persuades Jekyll to join him and Lanyon for a drink. They exit onto a London street (Facade).
In the tavern/bawdy house, Lucy fronts the show (Bring on the Men). Jekyll is barely moved. He remains distracted, absorbed in his thoughts, his meeting with Carew, potential projects.
Facade - Reprise. Cut short, the number no longer provides exposition for Jekyll’s engagement.
Ensemble
If you live around here, you need cash in the bank,
’Cause the houses ’round here are all flashy and swank,
And the front of it is what’s called a facade...
Instead, servants prepare Jekyll’s dining room, set for his fiftieth birthday dinner party. Philosophical discussion; Jekyll introduces his experiment and ideas. While Dr. Lanyon thinks him mad, Jekyll is convinced that his work will lead to great innovation. He sings a revised version of Pursue the Truth, as a monologue.
Jekyll
How can I pursue the truth,
if you will block each step I take?
Utterson
Henry, you have come too far -
remember what you have at stake.
Jekyll
John, I know I’m right.
I must let my vision guide me.
I’m weary of this fight.
There’s so little left inside me.
Yet, I know that I am right -
so I’ve got to see it through.
I’ve got to see it through…
Seven years ago, I started out on this alone,
and it’s alone I’ll see it through
to its conclusion.
Who are you to judge what I am doing,
you know nothing of the endless possibilities I see!
The number begins in discussion with Utterson on a more contemplative note than the impassioned recording. It may, however, beg a new ending to the song. Dissent between the party guests and the host brings the dinner to its sudden conclusion - Jekyll ejects the guests from his home and retreats to his laboratory.
After much deliberation and struggle - a soliloquy which replaces Now There is No Choice - Jekyll makes preparations for the First Transformation. This leads into our Act I climax, Alive, which introduces Hyde to the streets of London.
Good and Evil could be the soundtrack for a montage depicting Hyde in the underworld, where is actions escalate from theft to opium to rape to murder. In the process, he visits a brothel, where Lucy is paired with him for Dangerous Game. Rather than a consensual event, the song begins as part of a dance routine. Other men are seated, receiving dances from other women. They are shadows in the house, and slowly the focus is taken by Lucy and Hyde. After the conclusion of the song, Hyde forces himself on Lucy. She does not survive the encounter. (See: episode 1.1 of Ripper Street. Seriously. Snuff films.)
Hyde is revitalized by the event, launching into a reprise of Alive. (Incidentally, since when is a reprise longer than the original?).
ACT II
The ensemble introduces us to London’s East End with a reprise of Facade. Perhaps we see Jekyll struggling to sustain himself with The Way Back. Instead, a violent week passes in Murder, Murder.
Back in Jekyll’s study, Utterson and Lanyon pay a call to the doctor to express their concern. It becomes clear that Lanyon called the meeting, Utterson trying to defend Jekyll’s devotion to his work.
Lanyon
You have your work and nothing more,
you are possessed! What is your demon?
You’ve never been this way before -
you’ve lost the fire you built your dream on.
There’s something strange; there’s something wrong;
I see a change - it’s like when hope dies.
I, who have known you for so long,
I see the pain in your eyes.
Emma’s part would be reassigned to Utterson.
Utterson
Hastie, you know Henry won’t just walk away.
The only way he knows is straight ahead!
Lanyon
John, you’re twisting all the things I said.
My fear is he’s in up over his head.
He could lose control, and that I dread.
I would like to maintain the descant by using female members of the ensemble to fill out the sound. At the end of the number, Lanyon decides he has had enough. He cannot be a friend or associate of someone with so obvious a death wish, and so he storms out. Utterson and Jekyll are alone in the study.
Obsession provides insight into Jekyll’s thoughts. The audience is the only one privy to this information… Utterson is not.
When Utterson echoes Lanyon’s concern, even just a little bit of it, Jekyll feels betrayed, and yet ashamed. This time it is Jekyll who storms out - departing for his laboratory. Utterson, alone in the study, expresses his concern for Jekyll in a thoughtful Lost in the Darkness.
In the scene change to Jekyll’s laboratory, the ensemble whispers a reprise of Facade.
Jekyll contemplates the destruction of the remaining chemicals. Confrontation, with Hyde, reveals only one solution: suicide.
The finale will need a new epilogue, wherein Utterson and Poole break down the laboratory door to search for the missing Jekyll, only to find Jekyll’s ruined, lifeless body.
Whether this results in an expression of imagination, a pursuit of validation for my creative thought, or a treatise that goes viral (the thought of which is pretty laughable)... here goes.
I've never really enjoyed the term 'critic' - if I had my way, I would have been something of a ‘consulting director,’ or ‘consulting dramaturg,’ as Sherlock Holmes is a ‘consulting detective.’ I should like to enter, en medias res, say my piece, and set it on its way to success. Nothing crushes my soul like potential unfulfilled. Whether it’s a child, a software change, or a production, missed opportunities can be heartbreaking.
There have been seven recordings for Jekyll & Hyde since 1987, with waves of cult followers and a relentless push for productions ever since. We all know there’s something there. It was optioned for a film back in 2013 - Jekyll & Hyde has the potential to be one of the great movie musicals, just not as it stands.
Look at the BBC’s Ripper Street. Read Daniel Lavine’s novel Hyde, return to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The infamous novella follows an unusual narrative, shifting narrators, referencing documents - elements that have made Pride and Prejudice difficult to adapt, as well as Dangerous Liaisons. Choosing the story you want to tell is fundamentally important, and yet straying too far from Stevenson will also cause us to lose sight of the timeless Shakespearean advice: “Brevity is the soul of wit.”
There are lessons to be learned from theatrical predecessors and successors. Among them: faithfulness to the original text. Les Miserables is extraordinarily similar to the massive novel, and of course, also started as a pop-rock musical; My Fair Lady is virtually identical to its source drama; the obnoxiously irrepressible Rent matches La Boeheme act for act; Frankenstein, adapted by Nick Dear is a poetic and evocative adaptation of the novel; Once, adapted from the film, is so true to the spirit of the film, and the story, that the changes become negligible.
That being said, the film version of Jekyll & Hyde must have a more taut, riveting story. I've eliminated Emma in my version - she's unnecessary. Revisionists should also consider spoken dialogue to replace the sung scenes. The dichotomy of the main character’s identities requires the split between spoken word and sung lyric. Were I influential enough, I would recruit Nick Dear to script the scenes. Reunite him with Frankenstein director Danny Boyle. Talk to Luke Evans for the lead.
Just give me a "special thanks" credit, and maybe a set visit.
----------------------------------------------------------
Suggested Song List
ACT I
Prologue
Pursue the Truth
Facade
Bring on the Men
Facade - Reprise (London)
Now There is no Choice
First Transformation
Alive
Good and Evil
Dangerous Game
Alive (Reprise)
ACT II
*Facade - Reprise (East End)
The Way Back
Murder, Murder
Your Work and Nothing More
Lost in the Darkness
Facade - Reprise (Whispers)
Obsession
Confrontation
Finale
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Edward Hyde
Atty. John Utterson
Dr. Hastie Lanyon
Lucy
Ensemble
ACT I
Extend the Prologue, for a more traditional overture.
Operating amphitheater, London, 1886. End of a lecture. Utterson, Lanyon, and Jekyll are leaving, other attendees mingling, among them Sir Danvers Carew. Utterson, Lanyon, and Jekyll are schoolmates.
Utterson
Reminds me of our school lectures, though I don’t recall the pain in my lower back…
Lanyon
It’s the wooden benches! After twenty-five years, even a judge would feel it.
Utterson
Remind me to bring a cushion to the next one!
Jekyll is withdrawn, contemplating the lecture. He is approached by Sir Danvers Carew, who introduces himself, claiming to have mutual interests and connections to funding for experimental research. Carew encourages Jekyll to keep in touch, sensing that he feels confined by the limitations of conventional science. Utterson, skeptical of the newcomer, intervenes, and persuades Jekyll to join him and Lanyon for a drink. They exit onto a London street (Facade).
In the tavern/bawdy house, Lucy fronts the show (Bring on the Men). Jekyll is barely moved. He remains distracted, absorbed in his thoughts, his meeting with Carew, potential projects.
Facade - Reprise. Cut short, the number no longer provides exposition for Jekyll’s engagement.
Ensemble
If you live around here, you need cash in the bank,
’Cause the houses ’round here are all flashy and swank,
And the front of it is what’s called a facade...
Instead, servants prepare Jekyll’s dining room, set for his fiftieth birthday dinner party. Philosophical discussion; Jekyll introduces his experiment and ideas. While Dr. Lanyon thinks him mad, Jekyll is convinced that his work will lead to great innovation. He sings a revised version of Pursue the Truth, as a monologue.
Jekyll
How can I pursue the truth,
if you will block each step I take?
Utterson
Henry, you have come too far -
remember what you have at stake.
Jekyll
John, I know I’m right.
I must let my vision guide me.
I’m weary of this fight.
There’s so little left inside me.
Yet, I know that I am right -
so I’ve got to see it through.
I’ve got to see it through…
Seven years ago, I started out on this alone,
and it’s alone I’ll see it through
to its conclusion.
Who are you to judge what I am doing,
you know nothing of the endless possibilities I see!
The number begins in discussion with Utterson on a more contemplative note than the impassioned recording. It may, however, beg a new ending to the song. Dissent between the party guests and the host brings the dinner to its sudden conclusion - Jekyll ejects the guests from his home and retreats to his laboratory.
After much deliberation and struggle - a soliloquy which replaces Now There is No Choice - Jekyll makes preparations for the First Transformation. This leads into our Act I climax, Alive, which introduces Hyde to the streets of London.
Good and Evil could be the soundtrack for a montage depicting Hyde in the underworld, where is actions escalate from theft to opium to rape to murder. In the process, he visits a brothel, where Lucy is paired with him for Dangerous Game. Rather than a consensual event, the song begins as part of a dance routine. Other men are seated, receiving dances from other women. They are shadows in the house, and slowly the focus is taken by Lucy and Hyde. After the conclusion of the song, Hyde forces himself on Lucy. She does not survive the encounter. (See: episode 1.1 of Ripper Street. Seriously. Snuff films.)
Hyde is revitalized by the event, launching into a reprise of Alive. (Incidentally, since when is a reprise longer than the original?).
ACT II
The ensemble introduces us to London’s East End with a reprise of Facade. Perhaps we see Jekyll struggling to sustain himself with The Way Back. Instead, a violent week passes in Murder, Murder.
Back in Jekyll’s study, Utterson and Lanyon pay a call to the doctor to express their concern. It becomes clear that Lanyon called the meeting, Utterson trying to defend Jekyll’s devotion to his work.
Lanyon
You have your work and nothing more,
you are possessed! What is your demon?
You’ve never been this way before -
you’ve lost the fire you built your dream on.
There’s something strange; there’s something wrong;
I see a change - it’s like when hope dies.
I, who have known you for so long,
I see the pain in your eyes.
Emma’s part would be reassigned to Utterson.
Utterson
Hastie, you know Henry won’t just walk away.
The only way he knows is straight ahead!
Lanyon
John, you’re twisting all the things I said.
My fear is he’s in up over his head.
He could lose control, and that I dread.
I would like to maintain the descant by using female members of the ensemble to fill out the sound. At the end of the number, Lanyon decides he has had enough. He cannot be a friend or associate of someone with so obvious a death wish, and so he storms out. Utterson and Jekyll are alone in the study.
Obsession provides insight into Jekyll’s thoughts. The audience is the only one privy to this information… Utterson is not.
When Utterson echoes Lanyon’s concern, even just a little bit of it, Jekyll feels betrayed, and yet ashamed. This time it is Jekyll who storms out - departing for his laboratory. Utterson, alone in the study, expresses his concern for Jekyll in a thoughtful Lost in the Darkness.
In the scene change to Jekyll’s laboratory, the ensemble whispers a reprise of Facade.
Jekyll contemplates the destruction of the remaining chemicals. Confrontation, with Hyde, reveals only one solution: suicide.
The finale will need a new epilogue, wherein Utterson and Poole break down the laboratory door to search for the missing Jekyll, only to find Jekyll’s ruined, lifeless body.
