Highlights from Jekyll & Hyde [Concept]

Performer: Frank Wildhorn
Engineer: Lance Phillips; John Naslen
Producer: Frank Wildhorn; Karl Richardson
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Cast includes; Linda Eder, Colm Wilkinson. Composer: Frank Wildhorn. Personnel: Colm Wilkinson (vocals); Frank Wildhorn (piano); Linda Eder (vocals); Danny Wilensky (saxophone). Audio Mixers: Lance Phillips; Karl Richardson. Liner Note Author: Leslie Bricusse. Recording information: Air Studios, London, England; Manta Sound, Toronto, Canada; Middle Ear Studio, Miami, FL; Power Station, N.Y., NY. Arranger: Jeremy Roberts. In 1970, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice produced a studio-cast "concept" album of their intended stage musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Twenty years later, Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse took the same path with Jekyll & Hyde, beginning their journey to the stage with a "highlights" disc on which songs from the score were sung by Les Miserables star Colm Wilkinson in the title roles and Linda Eder playing two female leads. Little of Robert Louis Stevenson's original plot was retained by lyricist Bricusse (not that that's unusual in the many other versions), but more difficult was that very little story was apparent among these highlights. Only a few plot points were pursued in short numbers, while the bulk of the album was given over to power ballads and the kind of slow-building anthems of romantic devotion that littered adult contemporary charts in the '80s. All resembled songs from a romantic movie, rather than a science-fiction/horror story; even Jekyll's big ballad before turning into Hyde, "This Is the Moment," sounded more like something from a self-help tape. Wilkinson gamely used his high, slightly phlegmy tenor to express outsized emotion, while Eder employed many of the oversinging vocal effects common to Barbra Streisand's work, while making no noticeable distinction between her roles of ingenue and whore (not that the lyrics did, either). On the whole, it was hard to find a show in this recording. A month after this album was released, Jekyll & Hyde was staged at the Alley Theatre in Houston with Eder, but not Wilkinson. In 1994, a second studio-cast album, a two-CD "complete work" version of Jekyll & Hyde, was released; there was then a national tour of the show, and in 1997, Jekyll & Hyde finally came to Broadway. The original Broadway cast album revealed that seven songs from the first version were in use onstage, sometimes in altered form. ~ William Ruhlmann In 1970, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice produced a studio-cast "concept" album of their intended stage musical Jesus Christ Superstar, and things worked out pretty well for them. Twenty years later, Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse took the same path with Jekyll & Hyde, beginning their journey to the stage with a "highlights" disc on which songs from the score were sung by Les Miserables star Colm Wilkinson in the title roles and Linda Eder playing two female leads, Jekyll's fianc� Lisa and a prostitute named Lucy, neither of whom is mentioned in the 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was appropriate that Stevenson's out-of-copyright work was not cited as the story's source, since so little of his plot was retained by lyricist Bricusse (not that that's unusual in the many other versions, especially the films). More difficult was that, at least among these highlights, very little story of any kind was apparent. Bricusse contributed a two-page synopsis that gave a general sense of the story line, but on disc only a few plot points were pursued in short numbers, while the bulk of the album was given over to power ballads reminiscent of Wildhorn's #1 hit for Whitney Houston, "Where Do Broken Hearts Go," and of the kind of slow-building anthems of romantic devotion that littered the Adult Contemporary charts in the 1980s - things like Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes' "Up Where We Belong" and Bill Medley and Warnes ' "(I've Had) The Time of My Life." "Love Has Come Of Age," "Someone Like You," "Till You Came Into My Life," whether sung by Wilkinson, Eder, or the two together, all sounded more like songs that should be playing over the credits of some romantic movie rather than having anything to do with a science-fiction/horror story like Jekyll & Hyde. Even Jekyll's big ballad before turning into Hyde, "This Is the Moment," sounded more like something from a self-help tape than anything that related to the story at hand. (No wonder that it became popular as a sports anthem.) Wilkinson gamely used his high, slightly phlegmy tenor to express outsized emotion, while Eder employed many of the oversinging vocal effects common to Barbra Streisand's work, while making no noticeable distinction between her roles of ingenue and whore (not that the lyrics did, either). On the whole, it was hard to find a show in this recording. A month after this album was released, Jekyll & Hyde was staged at the Alley Theatre in Houston with Eder, but not Wilkinson. Six of the songs on the album ultimately were retained in the show - "Board of Governors," "A New Life," "Once Upon a Dream," "Someone Like You," "This Is the Moment," and "Transformation." In 1994, a second studio-cast album, a two-CD "complete work" version of Jekyll & Hyde, was released, retaining "A New Life," "Once Upon a Dream," "Someone Like You," "This Is the Moment," and "Transformation," and bringing back "Letting Go," "No One Must Ever Know," and "Possessed" from the first version. There was then a national tour of the show, and in 1997, Jekyll & Hyde finally came to Broadway. The original Broadway cast album revealed that seven songs from the first version were in use onstage, sometimes in altered form: "Letting Go," "A New Life," "No One Knows Who I Am," "Once Upon a Dream," "Someone Like You," "This Is the Moment," and "Transformation." ~ William Ruhlmann

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