My Year is invaded by The Hoff! Yes, David Hasselhoff appears as both Jekyll and Hyde in this filmed version of the stage musical Jekyll & Hyde The Musical.
Frank Wildhorn's erratic and rambling tunes do no favors to his performers. While being very listenable, they seem to lack a structure that allows a performer to build songs into a climax. The Hoff suffers the most under this limitation, as Jekyll and Hyde are of course given the most power ballads. A lot of the exposition and plot-moving is accomplished in the equivalent of musical theater recitatives, which have even less structure than the songs.
My first response to listening to this was that Mr. Wildhorn suffered under his own, pedestrian lyrics. But in looking this show up on the Broadway database, I see that Mr. Wildhorn did not write the lyrics or book. They are credited to Leslie Bricusse, famous for a long partnership with Anthony Newly that led to such shows as The Smell of the Greasepaint, the Roar of the Crowd. Fortunately, there is enough blame to go around.
As for Mr. Hasselhoff, I doff my hat to him. He gives a very committed performance that requires a huge range of emotions, and a large vocal range. If his baritone at times seems a bit unsupported, then at least the short phrases of the libretto allow for frequent breaths.
Mr. Wildhorn's wife, Linda Eder in her Broadway debut, originated the role of Lucy, the club singer. Here that role is played by Coleen Sexton. Barrie Ingham appeared both in the Broadway original and this cast. Of course this show ran for more than 1500 performances, proving that no one ever went broke underestimating the tastes of the public.
Jekyll & Hyde The Musical
Music by Frank Wildhorn
Lyrics and book by Leslie Bricusse
Based on a story by Robert Louis Stevenson
Cast: David Hasselhoff, Coleen Sexton, Andrea Rivette, Barry Ingham, George Merritt
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