Pulp | Arts Around Ann Arbor

If nothing else, “Jekyil & Hyde” is a most adaptable musical: You want a creepy and compact romance-drama-hor-ror-thriller? This hit show by Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse can be performed with a mere dozen or so actors - as it was a couple of years ago at Detroit’s Fisher Theatre. It can also be dressed up with an operatic throng of 40-plus, as witness Ann Arbor Civic Theatre’s Thursday-through-Sunday area premiere holding forth at Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre.

“The show just recently became available (to outside theaters),” says director Wendy Sielaff, who’s been working on Civic’s production for a year in anticipation of the musical’s release. “It closed on Broadway about a year ago (following a four-year run), and as quick as we could, we obtained the rights to stage it.

“One of the wonderful aspects about the show is that it’s perfectly flexible for a big cast or a small cast. And a big cast is one of the things community theater is all about.”

An atypical Big Apple hit, “Jekyil & Hyde” was panned by most of the critics (too melodramatic, musically undistinguished, hammy performances, etc.), yet became a Broadway blockbuster anyway. Opening in 1997, the musical swiftly gained a passionate following of audience admirers who dubbed themselves “Jekkies” (after “Star Trek’s” Trekkies). True believers who knew every song note and ever spoken line, this loving clique attended “Jekyil & Hyde” again and again, held then-own mini-conventions and may well follow the show around the country wherever a production pops up (though Sielaff has yet to hear from them).

In some ways the Jekkies became more newsworthy than the musical itself: Composer Wildhorn and writer/lyricist Bricusse’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novel of good versus evil in the human heart struck this reviewer as gushingly over the top in its professional touring production at the Fisher.

“You’ve got to have a great performer in the lead role,” Sielaff stresses. “He’s doing two characters, and has to carry the show. I think we found the right person in Anthony Provenzola (a veteran of Civic shows).

“It’s important that the audience understands why (Dr. Henry) Jekyil does what he does, why he created his terrible formula out of love for his father and pain over his father’s mental illness. His intentions are noble, and so is he. He’s not only brilliant but a kind man, a lover of the underdog. And then he turns into this monster, (Edward) Hyde. And how painful it is to him to know that he’s done this, his feeling of utter remorse and grief over what he’s perpetrated.

“It’s not easy to convey all these emotions, but Anthony does it beautifully and movingly. He also has a wonderful singing voice, as do the other principals in the cast. For that matter, the entire cast (whose ages range from 7 years old to 70-plus) sounds terrific.”

Other leads include Emily Raymond as Henry’s svelte fiance Emma Carew, who’s oblivious to Jekyll’s split-personality experiments. Pamela Vachon plays lusty London bar girl Lucy Harris, who’s by turns terrorized by Hyde, then comforted by a guilt-ridden Jekyil. The cast also features Brad Vincent, Bob Skon, Ben Sweetser, Brian Parrish, Dave Feiertag, Naomi Carnes, Jordan St. John, Dann Smallwood, Craig Van Kempen and Steve Home.

Sielaff calls the final casting an “agonizing” process. “It took us from noon to 3:30 in the morning (at auditions) to cast the right people. There was so much talent that it got down to who looked best with whom, who sounded best with whom. I hate one-layer characters, and we have very three-dimensional performers.”

“Jekyil & Hyde” features a revolving set (designed by Sielaff and husband Michael) that alternates between Jekyll’s prim London mansion and his sinister laboratory. Don Smith provides the lighting, while Susie Bemeis has both designed and sewn period costumes for the 40-plus players.

“We’ve added a lot of dance to the show,” Sielaff says. “We have a wonderful group of dancers, and I thought we should take advantage of the fact.” Tawna Dabney is choreographer for the show, while Diana Lawrence serves as musical director and conductor of Civic’s pit orchestra at Lydia Mendelssohn.

Would the director call “Jekyil & Hyde” - which at times turns quite violent - a show for the whole family?

“The writers don’t pull their punches,” she admits. “During the course of the show seven people are murdered onstage. But you think of what kids see on TV and on video games, and it doesn’t seem like that much of a problem.

“We have children in the show, and I told them about the murders and whether that would bother them. They went, Aah, that’s OK.’ Also, there’s no blood. You can’t dance with blood on the stage.”

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