"Each man you meet in the street isn't one man but two!"

Jekyll & Hyde

Saturday 9^th April 2011 at the Hippodrome, Birmingham

Cast

Dr. Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde… Marti Pellow

Lucy… Sabrina Carter

Emma… Sarah Earnshaw

Sir Danvers… David Delve

Utterson… Mark McGee

Lady Beaconsfield/Nellie… Amira Matthews

Simon Stride… Michael Taibi

General Glossop… Martin Dickinson

Sir Archibald Proops… Matt Stevens

Lord Savage/Spider… Jacob Chapman

Bishop of Basingstoke… Jon De Ville

Poole… James Gant

Bisset… Daniel Robinson

Ensemble… Carolyn Maitland

Ensemble… Alexandra Grierson

Ensemble… Grace Gardner

Ensemble/Swing… Rob Copeland

Ensemble/Swing… Kerri Watt

I was bought tickets for this touring production of Jekyll and Hyde for my birthday by my sister, having only had minimal knowledge of this stage production, which was limited to a recording David Hasselhoff singing 'Alive!'. Incidentally, that one number was the only disappointment for me in this sinister production, for in my opinion, "The Hoff" sang it better.

But I digress. Clearly a star vehicle for Pellow, whose excellent singing voice managed to draw attention away from his sub-par acting as Henry Jekyll (as Hyde however, he was quite terrifying) and his Confrontation duet is an excellent example of how well he differentiated the two characters. Sabrina Carter demonstrated the best performance in the piece as the down-on-her-luck "working girl" Lucy, both vocally and acting wise, her singing making the hair stand up on the back of your neck (whilst her scenes with Hyde do the same, but for very different reasons). The ensemble numbers were also highly entertaining, particularly "Bitch, Bitch, Bitch" and the Act 2 opening number "Murder, Murder!", which featured some delightful black comedy "You're next Savage!". My only complaints are of several lyrics which were painful bad (rhyming "horizon" with "eyes on") for example, and an underdeveloped secondary cast (while in Sarah Earnshaw's case, this is a disappointment, you can clearly see her potential in her brief scenes, with Jekyll's friend Utterson it is perhaps a small mercy, acting this wooden hasn't been seen since Gormenghast's Andrew Robinson). 

To conclude, this was a most entertaining, if ocassionally frightening performance, although I'm quite certain that, in reality, if you were to brush your hair over your face and start wearing a top hat, you wouldn't suddenly be mistaken for another person. Ah well.

Theatre Notes

• Marti Pellow, whilst primarily known for being part of 'Wet, Wet, Wet', has always made numerous appearances on stage, as Billy Flynn in Chicago and as the Arbiter in the Chess concert.
• Both Sabrina Carter and Sarah Earnshaw appeared in Wicked on the West End, Carter understudying Elphaba and Earnshaw acting as understudy and later standby Glinda from 2006 until this production.