Always an Adventure

Jekyll and Hyde  starts off its tour in San Diego this week and Laird Mackintosh is excited to return to San Diego! Previously San Diego saw him as George Banks in the touring production of Mary Poppins and he now returns in the Broadway bound tour of Jekyll and Hyde as John Utterson, Jekyll’s best friend.

Jekyll and Hyde is based on the short story by Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows a scientist who is driven to find a solution to challenging medical problems. Denied the ability to run his experiments he decides to try them on himself and unwittingly unleashes his hidden demons. Tony® and Grammy Award® nominee Frank Wildhorn and Oscar® and Grammy Award® winner Leslie Bricusse have updated this dark and dangerous story to suit the powerful and contemporary vocal stylings of its new stars Constantine Maroulis and Deborah Cox.

Laird gets excited about the prospect of bringing this show back with a new sharper edge. “I think that Frank, the composer and Jeff, the director have done quite an amazing job of giving it a new, more sexy, younger kind of sensibility, bringing a lot of freshness to the show. The new design of the show, it’s really exciting and it’s very cool for all of us. We got to go early in the process, Jeff (Calhoun) our director, took the whole cast to this giant warehouse within New York where they were building all the sets. So we had a chance to see the sets before we began really rehearsing the show. It really let us know what we were in for, what we could expect, and what we were going to be working with and then, of course, we saw the costume design as well. And we put the show up pretty quickly so it wasn’t too long before we were seeing those costumes in person and we were in them. It’s a great costume design. You know the look is kind of steampunk. That’s the design aesthetic that they’ve gone for, which is a real sort of Victorian, Industrial age look that meets well…punk.”

Mackintosh enjoyed his time touring in Mary Poppins and was excited at the prospect of being on a Broadway bound tour and working with its creators on updating it for this cast. “It’s just such a great opportunity and of course ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ is one of those iconic shows. The music we had Frank Wildhorn sitting in on rehearsals every day. It’s just an honor to have him there, to be performing his music and to have him helping, making changes, and giving us a new piece of music, tailor fitting the show to us as individual performers”.

Laird has an amazing background that started as a performer for the National Ballet of Canada, performing with them across Canada, the United States, and the world including Japan and Hong Kong. He made is musical theatre debut in The Phantom of the Opera starting as Raoul and as the cover for the role of the Phantom. He has also performed at the Stratford Festival, Toronto’s Opera Atelier and more. Since touring will take him around the United States before finishing New York, he is looking forward to the opportunity to tour again. “Every city is different and it’s a nice opportunity to get more exposure to different places. We’re going to a long break in Chicago, and we’re going to be back to Los Angeles in the New Year, and the on to Toronto. There’s going to be lots of nice opportunities on this tour, but mostly we’re excited about the chance to get the show out in front of people.”

He is also very excited about the chance to work with this cast. “Constantine is brilliant as Jekyll, in the dual role, Jekyll and Hyde. Deborah Cox is an incredible singer. Teal Wicks is amazing. Richard White really brings a great, kind of gravitas to his role. It’s just a great combination of people and the entire ensemble is just filled with fantastic, really, really strong singers, really strong actors. Everybody in the group is bringing a lot to the show. I think it’s really nice, as a group together, we’re a strong cast. It’s a great feeling to get out there and know that you’ve got a show that you’re really proud of.

Teak Wicks is a theatre girl with California roots. She grew up in Sacramento, studied at UC Irvine and started journey as Elpheba in “Wicked” in San Francisco before moving to New York. Now she is back in California as Emma in the Broadway bound tour of “Jekyll and Hyde”.

Based on the short story by Robert Louis Stevenson “Jekyll and Hyde” follows a scientist who is driven to find a solution to challenging medical problems. Denied the ability to run his experiments he decides to try them on himself and unwittingly unleashes his hidden demons. Tony® and Grammy Award® nominee Frank Wildhorn and Oscar® and Grammy Award® winner Leslie Bricusse have updated this dark and dangerous story to suit the powerful and contemporary vocal stylings of its new stars Constantine Maroulis and Deborah Cox.

Most recently having played Elpheba in the powerhouse musical that is “Wicked”, both in San Francisco and in New York, what is it that drew her to this Broadway bound tour of “Jekyll & Hyde”? “The main thing is that I wanted to be part of something from the ground up into Broadway and this is been a lot of time to really work on a show before we bring it to the New York audiences and on the tour and you get to be so many different theatres and different types of audiences and really great way to get a sense of what’s working and what doesn’t work and how does it sort of synapse the characters and how to just really get a such a great sense of what the show is and touring is a great way to do that. You get to travel, and I love to travel and I love going to new places and whatnot. It is all of us doing it together, and it’s fun.”

Wicks character maybe a society girl but that’s not what drew her to the part of Emma, Jekyll’s fiancé. “I really like that she’s a very passionate woman. And I love that, I love passionate characters that are true and full of laughter that follow t their passions. I love that she’s this society girl who falls in love with an unlikely suitor and she’s completely committed to him and loves him for his passion and his commitment to his work and his drive.”

Teal says that this revamp of the musical is new to her since she wasn’t very familiar with the original version that premiered in 1997. Other than hearing a few songs, this is a completely new experience for her with this musical. “’I’ve never seen any version of ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ and I didn’t know the album, any of the previous albums very much. So that was actually cool coming with fresh head into this because I had no preconceived notions of the show and I, as far as I can tell, I really like the direction that we’ve taken it. We’ve tried to make it contemporary and sort of appeal to today and music”.

As Emma, Wicks has one of the most memorable songs in the show, a powerful duet with the character Lucy played by Deborah Cox. “It’s definitely one of my favorite moments in the show. I just think the song is such a beautiful song and it’s such a fantastic moment to be singing this epic song. Especially with Deborah,, because she is just stunning. It’s so fun. It’s such a huge moment. I think the audience loves it and it’s really great. I love that song.”

And the California girl, how does she feel about this opportunity to kick off this show in San Diego? “I’m excited to go to San Diego. I just love it!”