LA TIMES THEATER REVIEW

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Energetic performances and staging by the Cabrillo Music Theatre make the most of the gothic musical.

 

...as a mirror for contemplating the conflicted good and evil in each of us, the remarkably effective Cabrillo Music Theatre revival of "Jekyll & Hyde," the Frank Wildhorn-Leslie Bricusse gothic musical, finds continuing resonance in the cautionary tale penned by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886. Credit the producers for committing the talent and resources to making the most of the creators' epic ambitions.

     Hyde is the more compelling character, a portal for audiences to vicariously indulge forbidden impulses within a safely defined theatrical context.  Director Nick DeGruccio understands this, and his inventive staging revels in the story's darkness and eroticism. Hyde's murderous excesses are given free rein, complete with Grand Guignol-caliber effects.

     The energy never flags with DeGruccio's lively staging.     

- Philip Brandes, LA Times

 

'Jekyll & Hyde' is Re-focused at Cabrillo Music Theatre

 

...director Nick DeGruccio has streamlined and re-focused this show.  Yes, too many of the songs still tend to sound alike, but to quote one of Bricusse's own lyrics in Act Two, De Gruccio has given this show a new life.  He has enlisted a uniformly excellent cast and wisely never allows them to push or overplay the material. 

- Scott Mauro, BROADWAYWORLD.COM Scott Mauro

 

What a difference a director makes!  Cabrillo Music Theatre’s production of Jekyll & Hyde towers over all others and the #1 reason can be summed up in a single name: Nick DeGruccio. Following his brilliant direction of The Last Five Years, Beehive, and Zanna Don’t (all of them cited on LAStageScene’s Best Of The Year lists), DeGruccio now does quite possibly his best work yet, taking a show which detractors have called “bombastic” and “boring” and electrifying it, clarifying its themes, heightening its drama, and above all making it human.  

     Back to master director DeGruccio, who has not only cast his leads to perfection but has filled the stage with real actors and not just set pieces. 

     Ultimately, though, the success of this production of Jekyll & Hyde comes down to Nick DeGruccio and his stellar cast...proof that when talented performers get expert direction, miracles can truly take place.  
--Steven Stanley, StageScene LA
     March 9, 2008