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ACT ONE
London, 1885 ("Prologue"). The scene opens on Dr. Henry Jekyll,a brilliant young doctor and research scientist,
who is grief-stricken over his father's sudden and inexplicable lapse into mental illness ("Lost In The Darkness").
Jekyll
is obsessed by the belief that, given appropriate support by his peers in the medical profession, he can separate and isolate
good and evil in the human soul ("Facade"). Of course, he needs two things to do this: the aforementioned support, and a live
human subject.
Getting them, however, proves a lot harder than he bargained for.
He presents his case to the St. Jude's
Mental Hospital Board Of Governors--the president of whom happens to be his fiancee's father, Sir Danvers Carew. Unfortunately,
his ideas are swiftly shot down as each of the Board members votes against his proposals, and to add insult to injury, they
dismiss him as nothing more than a dangerous young radical.
Distraught, Jekyll turns to his best friend/lawyer John
Utterson, who encourages him to keep trying ("Pursue The Truth").
They then head off to a party in the more "respectable"
part of town ("Facade Reprise"),
to celebrate Jekyll's engagement to Sir Danvers' lovely daughter, Emma Carew.
At the
party, Simon Stride, who it would appear,is a former suitor of Emma's, as well as the Secretary to the Board of Governors--informs
Emma of Jekyll's actions earlier that afternoon,and questions her closely as to whether she really wants to go through with
the engagement ("Emma's Reasons").
Jekyll arrives, not only late, but still smoldering from the hospital encounter
earlier.
He tells Emma he is more determined than ever to continue his work ("I Must Go On"), and she responds by telling
him she has full confidence in his ideas and still loves him,no matter what the rest of the world thinks of him ("Take Me
As I Am").
Later Sir Danvers pulls Emma aside and discusses his concerns with her ("Letting Go").
Seeing as Jekyll
is still seriously bummed out, Utterson drags him unwillingly to a complete dive of a pub in the East End called"The Red Rat"
to drown his sorrows ("Facade Reprise 2").
Among the girls working at the club is Lucy Harris, a beautiful but disillusioned
young soul who wants to make something of her life ("No One Knows Who I Am").
On the stage of the Red Rat, however, she
displays the more vibrant side of her personality as she sings an appropriately decadent number ("Good and Evil"). Jekyll
becomes incensed when Lucy's boss slaps her around in front of the customers.
He consoles her and gives her his card, should
she ever need a shoulder to cry on or a friend to turn to.
Needless to say, she immediately develops a crush on him.
Jekyll goes home, decides to work late, and after a little soul-searching decides to make himself the
subject of the experiment ("This Is The Moment").
At somewhere around three in the morning, he finally finishes preparations,
and
injects himself with the formula ("First Transformation").
He is painfully (albeit messily) transformed into a new, almost
totally evil persona, who exalts in his liberated state and promptly christens himself Edward Hyde ("Alive").
Several weeks later, Jekyll finally emerges from his lab.
Utterson confronts him and tell him that everybody's
been worried sick about him lately, while Emma pleads with her father to be patient ("Your Work--And Nothing More").
He's
still iffy about giving up his work, but he decides not to make himself so scarce.
Later that evening, Jekyll recieves
an unexpected visitor to his consulting room--none other than Lucy.
She's been badly injured by a sadistic gentleman visitor
to the Red Rat--
a man by the name of Hyde. Jekyll is horrified, and treats her wounds ("Sympathy, Tenderness").
Lucy
is astounded by his kindness and kisses him. First in thanks, then in passion, then leaving a confused Jekyll to his thoughts
she wanders home daydreaming of her impossible relationship with Jekyll ("Someone Like You").
Later still, Hyde is prowling through the East End when he comes upon one of the members of the St. Jude's
Board of Governors --the Bishop of Basingstoke--with a teenage prostitute.
Hyde batters the man to death and sets his
body on fire. He then vows to make the other Board members suffer for their hypocrisy ("Alive Reprise")...
ACT
TWO
London is shocked by the brutal murder of the Bishop,
but Hyde's not done yet. He dispatches of the other
Board members in extremely gory fashion ("Murder, Murder").
At the end of ten days, Sir Danvers is the only one left alive;
one presumes that Hyde either got tired of it or wanted the sole survivor to be implicated in the other killings.
Emma,
frantic with worry for her fiance, goes to check up on him.
She finds his lab unlocked, and goes in. She finds the journal
he's been recording the proceedings of the experiments in, and begins to read it. Before she can discover the truth however,Jekyll
comes back. He's furious with her,and tells her so in no uncertain terms.
She reassures him of her love ("Once Upon A
Dream") and tells him
she'll wait for him no matter how long it takes to generally get things sorted.
She leaves.
Jekyll realizes how far out of control the experiment's gotten, and commences kicking himself for letting things get so far
out of hand ("Obsession").
Lucy and Emma fall to pondering their problems--Emma,
pining for Jekyll, wonders whether
she should just leave him, while Lucy wonders what to do about her growing feelings for him ("In His Eyes").
Lucy's
thoughts are interrupted by the arrival of Hyde.
Disappointed, and a little frightened of him, she finds herself nevertheless
drawn to him ("Dangerous Game"/"Facade Reprise 3").
Hyde realizes he's locked himself out of the lab, and writes Utterson
a letter in Jekyll's handwriting asking him to deliver the formula to him. Utterson shows up with the formula, but refuses
to give it to anyone except Jekyll. Trapped,
Hyde has no option except to reveal himself. He injects himself and transforms
back into Jekyll before Utterson's horrified eyes.
Exhausted and shakened, Jekyll gives Utterson a farewell letter to Lucy,
and returns to the lab to make one last stab at developing a stronger formula that will keep Hyde in check for longer ("The
Way Back").
Utterson delivers the letter to Lucy. She is illiterate , so Utterson reads it out to her.
In the
letter, Jekyll begs Lucy to leave London as soon as she can
--and encloses money to make good her escape.
Once left
alone, Lucy considers her frail future,
but resolves to make the best of things ("A New Life").
Without warning, Hyde
shows up. He taunts Lucy mercilessly about her feelings for Jekyll, and though she is clearly terrified, she makes no move
to throw him out.
He begins to sing to her soothingly, but his voice soon chokes with fury as he stabs her viciously to
death.
Most especially Lucy's murder, Hyde tries
to take over him once again, and the two personalities fight fervently for control ("Confrontation").
Jekyll's determination
not to give in finally overcomes Hyde's fierce will to live,
and after a tremendous effort, he fights off his evil alter
ego ("Facade Reprise 4").
A month passes, and the day of the Jekyll-Carew wedding finally arrives.
The beginning
of the wedding service goes exceptionally smoothly.
But suddenly Jekyll begins to experience the transformation pains,
and struggle as he might, he can't summon the strength to stave off Hyde.
He transforms, and Hyde declares victory-- "There
is no Henry Jekyll," he gloats, "only Edward Hyde!"
He strangles Stride and begins to advance on Emma.
Utterson
unsheathes his swordstick, ready to defend Emma.
But she has her own ideas: She addresses Hyde as Jekyll, knowing he would
never do anything to hurt her, and Hyde (speaking in Jekyll's voice) turns to Utterson and begs him to end his misery.
Utterson
doesn't have the heart to, in desperatind Jekyll knowing he can no longer live like this thrusts himself upon the sword.
He
falls to the ground mortally wounded.
Jekyll's voice and persona return to him, but the damage is done.
Emma cradles
him and does her best to comfort him.
He manages to whisper her name and then dies in her arms
("Finale").
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