I’ve seen all of Repertory Philippines Greenbelt Philippines
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| Cris Villongco and Michael Williams |
My
first encounter with Jekyll & Hyde happened when I heard the song Once Upon a Dream used during the end
credits of an Australian network’s coverage of the Winter Olympics back in 1988. The song
stuck with me despite not knowing where it came from. It was only a few years
later when I found out that the song was from this musical. Since then, I also got
to hear and eventually liked a couple of other songs from the musical like Someone Like You and of course, This is the Moment. So after Next Fall and Leading Ladies, it was finally time for Jekyll and Hyde.
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| Kalila Aguilos |
Although
I was really looking forward to hearing the music, the first thing that got my
attention inside the theater was the set design. The set was that of a Victorian
operating theatre where the chorus spent a lot of time at the risers watching
the action happening on stage as if they were an extension of the actual audience inside the Onstage theater. Or it could possibly be the other way around with the actual
audience being the extension of the chorus.
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| Jett Pangan and Junix Inocian |
Moving away from the chorus and on to the leads, Jett Pangan (Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde) was a revelation to me
since I’ve never heard a vibrato from him before. And he did employ that
vibrato to full effect when he sang his character’s signature song This is the Moment. Playing the lead
which is basically a dual role, Jett Pangan
had to dig in deep into his arsenal of acting chops. The other Jekyll/Hyde,
Michael Williams mentioned during the post-show conference that he thinks that
Pangan possesses this gravity and I think that this gave Pangan presence
throughout his performance. But too much of this gravity meant that for me, he was too much
Hyde and not enough Jekyll. It was hard for me to see what made his character
beloved by his fiancée Emma that was played by Cris Villonco.
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| Jett Pangan |
While
it was difficult for me to see the connection between Jekyll and Emma, it was easier
when it came to the other woman in Jekyll/Hyde’s life which was the prostitute Lucy played by
Kalila Aguilos. The contrast between the two women was clearly seen as Cris has
more refined features and voice while Kalila is more raw and edgy. The
contrasting vocals were highlighted very well during the duet In His Eyes in which the two had to work hard shifting between
registers while still keeping in character in order to get through this
difficult number. Someone who didn’t seem to work hard at all was Junix Inocian
who made his return to the Philippine stage with this production. Playing the
role of Utterson, Dr. Henry Jekyll’s trusted friend and lawyer, Inocian went
through his part looking like he didn’t exert any effort at all. He was just simply
Utterson.
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| Junix Inocian |
Oddly
and quite remarkably, the one thing that gave me the lasting impression in this
production was the set. Thankfully, director Menchu Lauchengo-Yulo explained
that the set design was among her vision for this musical which is totally
different from the original staging. She said that while the chorus was normally
off stage in the original production, she gave the chorus a more substantial
role here with them being the narration, situation and eventually the emotion.
She stressed that she gave the source material a different execution to make it
Repertory Philippines
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| The cast of Jekyll & Hyde |
Now,
I do want to have another take of this musical and see Michael Williams, the
other Jekyll/Hyde. It’s a good thing that the musical held at Onstage in Greenbelt April 22, 2012 at . Here are the remaining dates and their corresponding Jekyll/Hyde for the
rest of the show’s run:
Michael
Williams as Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde
Jett
Pangan as Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde
