Risqué goings on up Morningside way
Bohemians stage Jekyll and Hyde this week
By Thom Dibdin
A dark and dangerous love story in a shocking production is promised up at the Church Hill Theatre this week, when the Bohemians take on the musical version of Jekyll and Hyde.
Using Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella as its source material, the musical by Leslie Bricusse and Frank Wildhorn tells of an epic battle between good and evil in the story about a brilliant doctor whose experiments with human personality create a murderous counterpart.
Dr. Henry Jekyll is convinced that the cure for his father’s mental illness lies in the separation of Man’s evil nature from his good. In attempting to do just that, he unwittingly unleashes his own dark side, wreaking havoc in the streets of London as the savage, maniacal Edward Hyde.
“It’s not a show for the faint-hearted,” the Bohemians’ vice chair Gillian Bruce told the Annals. “Colin Cairncross, our director, has not held back in this production. The murders are vicious and brutal – and the risqué scenes in the brothel may shock.”
Written in the 1990s, when it started out life as a rock album, the musical has had a few outings in Edinburgh over the last decade. A woefully inadequate professional production staring Paul Nicholas toured to the Playhouse in 2006. Rather better interpretations have been staged by Tempo, Forth Children’s Theatre and EUSOG.
“Jekyll and Hyde is a relatively unknown show so it was a risk,” says Bruce. “But I feel it is a risk worth taking as the songs are wonderful and the dark murderous Victorian streets are an amazing back drop to play on. Most people have heard people such as Donnie Osmond and Michael Ball sing This is the Moment, but aren’t clear where it comes from – even our own King’s Panto included the song last Christmas!”
Not that this production will suitable for everyone who was at Mother Goose. This is very much a production for mature audiences, according to Bruce, who says that the show is suitable those aged 16 or over. With a much larger female contingent in the chorus than male, she adds that the brothel scenes are “rather interesting with women paired with women”.
Jekyll and Hyde
Church Hill Theatre, Morningside, Tue 5 – Sat 9 March 2013, daily 7.30pm (2.30pm Saturday Matinee)
Tickets £13 or £15 available through the Bohemians’ ticket manager on 07751 282 710 or through Tickets Scotland (0131 220 3234) www.tickets-scotland.co.uk
ENDS