Jekyll And Hyde The Musical Essay

The play was preformed in Bristol Hippodrome on the 11th May. The musical was about a doctor, Jekyll, who wants to see the other side of a person’s soul. He believed that in every person there is a darker side, the opposite of a person’s soul. He believes he has way of seeing this other person. He has an experiment that will enable him to do so but people won’t listen to him and knock back his ideas. After his idea being rejected he decides what to do. He takes the potion, and from it emerges as his other double side, Hyde. Hyde is the opposite of Jekyll, and is a cold-blooded murderer. Jekyll and Hyde both know about each other and as Hyde finds out about Lucy he plans to do something about it. Jekyll can’t control Hyde as Hyde forms a strong part of him. Throughout Hyde, kills people, one of which includes Lucy, a prostitute whom Jekyll had formed a friendship with. At the ending as Jekyll is about to marry Lisa, he makes himself get shot to end Hyde ever coming back. The main character in the play played both parts of Jekyll and Hyde. Whilst he was playing Jekyll, his appearance was smart and clean, whereas when he turned into Hyde his appearance was rough and sinister looking. Jekyll’s personality was kind and he was a gentle man. Hyde was his other side, being Vulgar and violent. Lisa was Jekyll’s fiancà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½e and was one of the only people whom listened to Jekyll. At the start they appeared to have a close relationship but as Jekyll turned into Hyde they became more distant, also this occurred when Jekyll met Lucy. Lucy was a prostitute who although seemed confident there was times when she showed her vulnerability and longing to go away from her life. When she met Jekyll, he was different and treated her with respects unlike all the other men. She falls in love with him, but as Hyde finds out about her he then kills her. The other characters in the play treat Jekyll as if he is just a doctor who has mad ideas but not worth the time to listen too. Hyde meanwhile makes people listen to him, right before he kills them. Jekyll’s relationship to other characters is distant apart from his fiancà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½e Lisa. Also when he meets Lucy, he is kind to her and they form a connection. Hyde doesn’t care about anybody. But when he finds out about Lucy, he makes himself involved with her. At the end Hyde visits Lucy and kills her. Throughout the play Jekyll constantly changes into Hyde, and as the play progressed the transformation was sudden and at the end the change between them was every second or two as they spoke to each other before transforming. He changes throughout the play because of the potion’s effect and he changes without his consent, as Hyde starts to overpower him. There were contrasts between pace between and within scenes. These occurred when Hyde would emerge from Jekyll or the suddenness of the next scene change. The effect this created was to make the scene more alive with what the characters were feeling and what the situation was about. Some changes of paced were specifically linked to characters such as Hyde’s would be loud and lively whereas Jekyll’s would be more calm and quiet. The changes in pace added to the tension. The set was made up of one floor, which was changed into a bar, a street scene and mostly Jekyll’s laboratory. Then there were two flights of stairs leading to another floor, like a balcony. Both of the floors were used for different parts of the play. When Hyde killed a man on the top floor he would drop down onto the next one. There was a number of exists. The set was mostly dark colours but between the scenes the mood of the set could change. The colours were made lighter for the scene in the bar but darker for Jekyll changing into Hyde. The lightning added to the effect of the different atmospheres of the scenes. The effects used when Jekyll and Hyde were changing straight after one another were the lightning would swirl and for Jekyll a calm, good blue colour whereas Hyde had a blood red colour. It showed the contrast between the two characters. When Hyde first came and was in Jekyll’s room, the lightning used was Hyde hitting a table and the candle on it light up and the lightning was more dramatic and the music was rushed. When something dramatic happened the lighting would add to this by bright colours and the fastness of it. The lights had patterns on them, which showed, as well as the colours, what the action mood was. When it was calmer such as Jekyll it would be softer. The music used were suited to the part of the play it accompanied, such as when Hyde was on a killing spree the music was fast and dramatic. The opposite to when Jekyll was with Lisa or Lucy. Obviously as this play was a musical the words spoken would be a song about how that character was feeling or what was happening in that event of the play. The sound and music produced an atmosphere as it expressed clearly people’s emotions as to what was happening. One of the best moments was when Lucy and Lisa sang together. They both had feelings for Jekyll and combined them into one song with each other. The costumes of the characters were suited to them. Jekyll was smart and organised looking whereas Hyde was scruffy and threatening. Lucy’s was suited to her but when she met Jekyll she changed a bit as she had feelings for him. When Hyde kept changing more frequently it affected Jekyll’s appearance, as Jekyll seemed more worried his appearance would be nervous. The overall success of the play was good. There were some scenes which were better than others, Lucy and Lisa singing together, which lifted the play and improved it. There were parts of the play, Hyde first emerging from Jekyll, which also added to the feeling of the play. The main characters of the play stayed in character and played their parts well.