https://www.timesunion.com/7day-breaking/article/Review-Young-Dr-Jekyll-Proctors-6-8-17-12982731.php
Review: 'Young Dr. Jekyll' @ Proctors, 6/8/17
Published 3:56 pm, Sunday, June 10, 2018
Lisa Hopkins directs and choreograophs the new musical "Young Dr. Jekyll" at Proctors. (Provided photo.)
Lisa Hopkins directs and choreograophs the new musical "Young Dr. Jekyll" at Proctors. (Provided photo.)
Schenectady
Rich with melody, heart and humor, "Young Dr. Jekyll," a new musical having its first professional production in the 80-seat Addy theater at Proctors, is an exciting success.
Although familiar in it outlines — intense young hero, overshadowed sibling, love triangle, comic-relief couple — the story is built with winning specificity by creative partners Philip David Stern, who wrote the music and lyrics, and Lisa Hopkins, who co-conceived the show, co-wrote its book with Stern and Tim Wells, and directed and choreographed the production. The pair, veterans of a number of small touring musicals that have been regional hits in the U.S. and abroad ("Scrooge," "Tap Kids," "Dream," "Sing"), brought the show to Proctors to further develop it in hopes of an off-Broadway production. It certainly deserves one, and with a story that will appeal to teen and preteen audiences as well as their parents, I can see it having a long life in youth and community theaters nationwide.
Told with minimal dialogue stitching together its two dozen musical numbers, "Young Dr. Jekyll" takes us into what the creators imagine might have been the early life of the character who would go on wrestle with a monstrous alter ego in the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novella that inspired the musical. Harry Jekyll (James Hunsaker), while still in his 20s and battling against the reputation of his talented but disgraced father, is trying to be the youngest person admitted to a prestigious scientific society.
As the show starts, Jekyll returns to London from a Pacific atoll, where he believes he discovered the key to increasing people's ability to access a larger percentage of their brain's capabilities. He moves into a dilapidated garret with his earnest artist-brother, Arthur (Cameron Nies) and Charlie (Berkley Jones), a friend of Arthur's who dresses as a man in order to be allowed to study at medical school. While Jekyll pores over his experiments and his flatmates try to help him as well as well as sort out their feelings for one another, subplots introduce us to their Cockney landlord (Chris Isolano) and the French nightclub singer with whom he becomes smitten (Meghan Deeley). He's a bumbler with a soul, and she's both femme fatale and, as she tells us, "damsel extraordinaire."
Frequently funny, the story is also genuine in its earnestness and its ultimate message, about being true to yourself and trusting in your own talents. The young, talented performers have been perfectly cast; fresh-faced and strong-voiced, they're also skilled actors whom Hopkins guides to performances that match the light tone of the show but are still honest and true. Hunsaker, a recent college graduate with a degree in musical theater, is an outstanding Jekyll. Intense and handsome, he's got a resonant, mature speaking voice and is a powerhouse when he sings, making him a compelling contrast to his sensitive brother. As Arthur, Nies has a gentle, sweet voice that swells with surprising strength in his one solo song; he's both sidekick and suitable second lead, and there's never a question whether Charlie will eventually take her eyes off the brilliant scientist to find the right brother by her side.
Even with a standout cast and the production's good technical aspects, developed with the help of the high school students in Proctors' TheatreTECH program, the show couldn't succeed as well as it does without Stern's music and lyrics. He works in familiar styles but incorporates them expertly into the story, whether it's Arthur's heart-rending ballad "Be More," the hilarity of straightlaced Jekyll dancing involuntarily in "Side Effects" or any of a series of terrific group numbers. While at times too dependent on quick internal rhymes, Stern's lyrics are rarely predictable, and sometimes they're an outright pleasure, as when he rhymes Cote d'Azure with soup du jour and titles a song "You Had Me at Bonjour." The music is provided by recorded tracks, which in the case of a new, small production makes sense: It allows for full orchestrations and a richer sound than would be possible from a live band that, as a result of financial necessity, likely would have been only a couple of keyboards and a percussionist.
Proctors, Stern and Hopkins, along with Saratoga Springs-based promoter Mills Entertainment, which invested in "Young Dr. Jekyll," hope this production will lead to future collaborations. Amen to that. To be an incubator of new work as well as a host of blockbusters touring from Broadway is a commendable addition to the Proctors portfolio.
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