Show History

History

Inspiration

Jekyll and Hyde (Youth Version) is a theatre for young audiences musical with book and lyrics by David Crane and Marta Kauffman and music by Michael Skloff. Crane and Kauffman are most well known for creating the Emmy-nominated television series, "Friends" and "Veronica's Closet," as well as creating the musicals, Rapunzel and When the Cookie Crumbles. Skloff also composed music for their previous projects.

The musical is a modern retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic horror novel of the same name. Like the novel, it tells the story of a man who produces dual identities after drinking a concoction. However, the themes of the show reside much more in the realm of drug use and bullying, which ties it into more educational theatre.

Productions

Jekyll and Hyde was created in the summer of 1990 by the company, Theatreworks, which specializes in touring musicals that function as theatre for young audiences. In October 1990, the company was asked to perform Jekyll and Hyde at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It helped launch the "All Babies Count" conference in Washington, D.C., which brought together prominent leaders in health care, education and the media to discuss the problems of drug abuse.