Back in the early 1990s, not so long ago for some of us, fans of the deliciously campy Frank Wildhorn / Steve Cuden / Leslie Bricusse musical “Jekyll & Hyde” had a name they liked to call themselves: Jekkies.
So. Calling all Jekkies! Calling all Jekkies! Calling all those inclined to vacuum the house or make a lasagne while listening to “This Is the Moment,” “Someone Like You” or “A New Life.” Calling all those who consider Linda Eder the greatest cabaret singer of all time and who spend their days longing for a next-gen replacement.
Get thee to the Chopin Theatre for director Derek Van Barham’s new production of the mother lode. You will not be disappointed.
Why? Three words: Ava Lane Stovall. Well, that and a 15-piece orchestra stuffed into the intimate Chopin Theatre in Wicker Park. We’re talking original orchestrations under the direction of Nick Sula, with the strings, the oboe, the whole power-ballad nine yards.
What a killer Lucy is Stovall: vocally thrilling, emotionally present and, along with her director, fully cognizant of the original purpose of this show, which was to showcase Eder’s incredible voice with power ballads equal to the yacht rock classics that were dominating the pop charts at the time. (Eder became Wildhorn’s wife for a time.) Stovall is spectacular.
None of this is to undermine either David Moreland, who is a decent Jekyll and Hyde, especially in the former persona, wherein he is more comfortable, or Emily McCormick, who is moving as Emma Carew. You’ll likely recall that both the musical and the sci-fi Robert Louis Stevenson story on which it was based are a love triangle, as well as a meditation: the doctor is engaged to Emma but interested in the sex-worker Lucy and when he experiments on himself to see if the good and evil within a man can be separated into two halves, he finds that both Lucy and he pay a terrible price.
The musical, like its close relative, “The Phantom of the Opera,” is best not deconstructed much more than that, politically or thematically, but as an emotional song-delivery machine, it’s one of Broadway’s more notable populist-gothic hits. It’s the kind of seductive show that drives theater people crazy over how audiences like it so much, but that doesn’t change the fact that they like it so much.
“Jekyll & Hyde” always has been a sexy crowd-pleaser. I remember watching the great Chuck Wagner in the lead role in the boffo 1990s tour, fighting off the women in the front rows and lingering at the stage door.
Frankly, there are few things more exciting than watching the emergence of a young talent on the level of Stovall, especially in a show that she clearly knows showcases all that she can do and that is backing her up with the aforementioned 15-piece band. Though I was not there on opening night, her performances of the Big Two Ballads both stopped the show for cheering ovations, which is not something you see every day in too-cool-for-school Wicker Park, let me tell you. What a blast to experience them; it rather reminded me of watching Jessie Mueller at the Marriott Theatre just before she hit it big, or Christine Sherrill, now killing it on Broadway in “Mamma Mia.”
Van Barham has staged the show inside an operating theater, which has its pluses and minuses, but Brenda Didier is on hand to choreograph the writhing, gothic ensemble (Quinn Simmons offers an especially diverse slate of characters) in most entertaining fashion and, at the end of the night, what really matters here is that Van Barham has stocked his show with Singers with a capital “S.” Not only do they belt out those sticky Wildhorn hooks and melodies like they’re trying to make the playlist at 93.9 LITE-FM, but they also add some very necessary vocal finesse. As much as one can here.
Frankly, I was knocked out by the quality of the sound, given the huge cast and orchestra in this kind of black box theater where so much has to be designed from scratch. Thanks to Sula’s musical direction, Matt Reich’s superb sound design and these young performers, everything arriving at your ear sounds sensational. Nothing here will change the mind of “J&H” haters (and they have their arguments, especially now) but fans will have rarely been this close to what they love. Certainly not at these prices.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Review: “Jekyll & Hyde” (3.5 stars)
When: Through Dec. 21
Where: Kokandy Productions at Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division St.
Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes
Tickets: $50-$60 at kokandyproductions.com
