[heartforthearts]

We have already done 4 performances of Jekyll and Hyde (one of my favorite shows of all time) last week. we close this tuesday. and honestly, our Jekyll/Hyde 's were INCREDIBLE. i just wanted to share that.

[DanceTenLooksThree]

We are doing jekyll and hyde for our musical right now too. I love it, rehearsals just started last week so we aren't too far into it but I love it. I can't wait til show night!

[Bubble Tea]

Our school did Jekyll & Hyde too, back in 2003-2004. It was awesome!

[Eponine93]

I never thought it would be a good show for a high school.

You need a seriously talented boy. I swear, the role of J/H is probably one of the hardest male roles out there. Plus, I don't get how teenagers could take the show seriously. Most of the adults in my production have a problem taking the material seriously without laughing at parts.

[Sweeney Hyde]

[Eponine93]

Once again, you have to take the role seriously. Yes, it's a very 2-dementional role but the actor has to create a way to get the role across so it doesn't appear 2-dementional. It's an easy role to do badly, but a difficult role to put across in the way the audience will take seriously.

Don't get me started on the Confrontation. 95% of the actors who have to perform that look ridiculous. It takes gut, vision and professionalism to do a duet with yourself without making a joke of it.

All of the roles you mentioned have layers within them. The actor can find something deep either in the original material to work with. Whereas the role of Jekyll/Hyde... you've got nothing to work with but corny, empty lines, a bunch of too-high, equally empty and corny songs including a duet with yourself. It's easy for the role to venture into looking ridiculous unless it's handled properly.

[Maid Marian]

It is permissible to do the show with a different actor each for Jekyll and Hyde. Has anyone on here tried that?

[Eponine93]

Well, I think it would be kind of difficult in the scenes where Jekyll transforms to Hyde onstage in front of the audience, which happens several times in the duration of the show. However, I suppose it could be done.

The rights people would have a field day though if they found out.

Technically, it could be done but it would require a lot of careful staging and just wouldn't be worth running the risk with the rights.

[Maid Marian]

I thought I'd heard the rights people let you do it? Oh dear. Even if they did, it WOULD be very difficult to stage ...

[MG]

I think using two actors for the roles of Jekyll and Hyde is a big mistake. I'm sure it can be done well, but what about the transformation scenes? Or the final conflict? I'm sure that the idea of having a separate body in the place to see them both in a face off might be an intense way to take things, but I guess that's just not something I would go for (not to say it's not something I'd enjoy in a show I was watching, just not in a show I was doing).

Something I feel is a sad mistake when it comes to Jekyll and Hyde is how people find the characters to be two-dimensional. In Louis' novel that is certainly not the case by any stretch of the imagination, but the novel isn't written through the eyes of Jekyll/Hyde so you don't see or hear things they think or find the justification behind the actions, not until Jekyll's confession and even then it seems as though whoever is writing the confession is regarding Jekyll and Hyde as two different people separate from the writer, which suggests a third side to a person (perhaps a default, of sorts?). I think this lack of the answer to the question of 'Why?' leads people to believe 'Good and evil, it's black and white'. With the musical or any other play, I feel the dialogue must be written as though it were black and white, because isn't it the job of the actor to make those choices to color the character and bring him to life? Good and evil is such a difficult subject there can hardly be any black and white in the development. Who really does what they think if wrong? Even Hitler though what he was doing was the right thing to do. What's hard to figure out on people who are so evil is just how they can possibly think what they do is right. But, alas, I highly doubt they do it even though they think or know its wrong.

I think the role of Jekyll/Hyde is such an amazing role and it can just blow someone out of the water. This part just takes so much work and thought even past what's there at face value of the characters. You really have to delve into the philosophy of what makes a person a person.

[Philphaba]

My brother did it, it was amazing, The Guy who played Jekyll & Hyde was amazing when he got told he was he said my brother is the th next in line if you get my drift.

[Sweeney Hyde]

I can't believe I wrote what I wrote about the part of Jekyll/Hyde earlier...i don't think it was me...

[freakycallbackgirl]

We did Jekyll and Hyde at my High School a few years ago (before I became a freshman). It was INCREADABLE. I went to EVERY show! My uncle directed and my "big brothers" (aka my best friends who are like my big brothers) starred as Jekyll and Hyde respectivly. They are twins and it looked AWESOME! The Confronatation was done with a mirror frame between them and it looked so cool! I <3ed that version

[Sweeney Hyde]

[freakycallbackgirl]

[Sweeney Hyde]

[freakycallbackgirl]

I know Jekyll and Hyde are usually the same person and when I saw it with the Twins are J & H they looked like the same person. The only time you could tell they were two people was at the confrinattion and bows.

When I was in Jekyll and Hyde, J & H were one person.