Tonight's Broadway opening is truly a talked about one the return of Jekyll and Hyde! Or better yet, the return of the Wildhorn! Frank Wildhorn came into the theatre scene with his long at work musical Jekyll and Hyde a show based on the classic novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, since 1990 (I think!) The show has undergone many revisions until it finally opened on Broadway in 1997 where the critics weren't so thrill about the production, but despite of it, the musical grew a large fan base and it made Linda Eder into a star, the show did have a long run and it did aired on television but the truth of the matter is that it failed to recoup on Broadway and this became a long run for Mr. Wildhorn's track record!
His last two shows to be seen on Broadway was considered by many fans "highly underrated!" in 2011 theatre goers finally saw the openings of the long working musicals: Wonderland, a modern spin off of the classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and Bonnie and Clyde a musical bio on the famous outlaws. Both musical had a VERY long development and finally hit the stage in 2009, Wonderland by the Straz Center in Tampa, FL and Bonnie and Clyde by the La Jolla Playhouse in CA, when is was getting ready for Broadway both shows had suffer some major unnecessary changes, opened on Broadway, to be attacked by the critics and flopped within a month!
Wildhorn musicals always begins off very promising but before it takes it's Broadway bow major changes let LOOSE! And then it's "hello closing notice!" Jekyll and Hyde is no stranger for that, like Wonderland many fans declare the Pre-Broadway version of Jekyll to be the ultimate and rightfully so! Me being in love with the musical Wonderland and was heartbroken with the Broadway changes I could understand the reception from the fans. The newly re-work Jekyll and Hyde is using most of the original material from the Pre-Broadway version with a rock updated with S&M undertones and feature: Costantine Maroulis as the title role and R&B singer Deborah Cox as Lucy Harris, mainly the classic songs such as THIS IS THE MOMENT and SOMEONE LIKE YOU was basically rearranged mainly for their voices the rework production toured in 28 cities and opened on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre where Wonderland had opened.
Tonight is the official opening and so far, not surprising once again New York critics and it's queens (Looking at you BroadwayWorld message board!) is attacking this classic Wildhorn show mainly because they feel Frank's musicals are all unoriginal rehash of his other work and they feel he's taken everything from the public domain into musicals but in spite of the naying, if was written by a favorite or has flashy hideous LED lights then those theatre queens would love it! (Right BroadwayWorld message board?) Then it would be a glowing hit now would it! The debate Frank being a underrated composer will be one of those touchy topics that will never go away and it will a whole lot of fun to watch!
Good luck Jekyll and Hyde! You know you have loyal fans, now make those theatre snobs EAT IT!
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