RHS adds Monday night show of Jekyll and Hyde

• Photo:Jekyll and Hyde

Maddie Holtze performs during a rehearsal for Rosemount High School's production of Jekyll and Hyde. The show starts its four-day run May 3.

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• Gallery: Jekyll and Hyde at RHS

It’s not the kind of source material that seems tailor made for musical theater, but director Thomas Hoffman believes the stage version of a classic horror tale is just the kind of thing to challenge a talented group of students.

Rosemount High School will present the stage version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde starting Thursday night at the school’s performing arts center. The show will run through Sunday.

“A lot of people probably don’t know about it, but it’s a show that, among the people who really watch theater stuff, it’s got that same kind of theatrical flair and the pop score you find in Les Mis and Cats,” Hoffman said. “It is a challenging piece, and that’s why you don’t hear about it so much.”

Hoffman believes he’s got the cast to pull the show off, though, particularly in seniors Kyle Weiler, who plays the dual role of Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde, and Corey McMenomy.

Weiler in particular is on stage for nearly the entire show, and near the end he has a climactic confrontation where he plays both sides of the Jekyll and Hyde dynamic.

“It’s something to behold in a young man of 17, 18 years old,” Hoffman said.

Also impressive is the show’s set, which is largely empty except for a bridge that spans the back of the stage and two large staircases that can pivot in and out of use as needed. Hoffman worked with technical director Mark Hubbard to design the set.

Choir director Gina Toso has helped with the vocal performances, and dance teacher Christina Morris has helped choreograph the movement of large groups on the stage. Band director Leon Seive directs the pit orchestra.

The show focuses on Jekyll, a brilliant doctor who, in the search to cure his father’s mental illness, turns himself into a lab rat and unleashes his own murderous dark side in the form of Hyde.

It is a difficult play to stage, but Hoffman is happy with the way it is coming together.

“It’s been a really fun piece, but challenging,” Hoffman said. “It’s coming together, and then you work it even harder.”

Jekyll and Hyde will be on stage at the performing arts center at 7 p.m. May 3, 4 and 5 and at 2 p.m. May 6. Tickets are available on the school’s website or by calling the ticket office at 651-423-7540 or 651-683-6969 ext. 37540.

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