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9 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Pastiche of Borrowed Ideas and Awkward Concepts, 10 Jan 2004
Developed by composer Frank Wildhorn and lyricist Leslie Bricusse, JEKYLL & HYDE proved a popular ticket at Houston's Alley Theatre in 1990--and after a concept album, several more regional productions, and numerous rewrites it opened in New York's Plymouth Theatre in 1997.Although critics admired several of the performers, they did not admire the show itself, and audience reaction was very mixed. Canny marketing and hardcore fans kept the doors open, but by 2001 the situation became acute, and television star and pop singer David Hasselhoff was cast in a last ditch effort to stem the tide. Many of the show's fans complain that Hasselhoff killed the play, which closed not long after this 2001 cable-television version captured his performance. At the time, Hasselhoff had little stage experience, and his weakness shows. But for all Hasselhoff's awkwardness (which is now and then unintentionally hilarious), the real problem with the show was the show itself. JEKYLL & HYDE is certainly one of the most derivative shows in recent memory, and Wildhorn borrows so liberally from other musicals that it's a wonder he wasn't sued. The show's opening sounds remarkably like the opening of LES MISERABLES; "Facade" might have been lifted directly from PHANTOM OF THE OPERA; "In His Eyes" is akin to a watered down "I Know Him So Well" from CHESS. In each case, Wildhorn also waters down the musical ideas he has borrowed, and the result is light pop pure and simple. Indeed, the show's centerpiece, "This Is The Moment," sounds exactly like the sort of thing Debbie Boone might have recorded twenty years ago. Nor is there any salvation in the lyrics, which range from tepid to flatly misguided, or the script, which is remarkably unimaginative. Not only do the musical, lyrical, and script ideas argue with each other, they argue with the visual style of the show itself. It seems very strange to hear something that sounds very much like 1980s American pop music and contemporary slang emerge from men in frocktail coats and women wearing bustles. The show looks quite a bit like an up-side SWEENY TODD, but it sounds very much like something your local high school might do. It's all very awkward. The supporting cast is quite good here, but they're fighting an uphill battle against both Hasselhoff and the show itself, and the only surprising thing about JEKYLL & HYDE is that it lasted on the stage for as long as it did. Unless you're a diehard fan of either Hasselhoff or the show itself, you'd really do better to purchase a cast recording from one of the many shows it mimics than bother with this DVD. Two stars for the production values and the supporting cast, but that's all. GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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