THE ORIGINAL

k$TAi.JkANT

Jeckyll, left,
performs a medical
experiment that goes
awry and creates the
evil Mr. Hyde in the
musical Yeckyll
Hyde," based on
the Robert Louis
Stevenson story.

/-

Wildhorn signed his first publish-
ing contract in the 1980s, soon after
the time he spent at the University of
Southern California. It wasn't long
before he began having his songs
recorded, and the first that brought a
paycheck was "Don't Tell Me Tonight"
sung by Helen Reddy.
From the early '80s to the early '90s,
he had songs recorded by pop artists
such as Kenny Rogers, Natalie Cole,
The Moody Blues, Julie Andrews,
Tricia Yearwood and Michael Feinstein.
The transition to the stage came after
an introduction to Gregory Boyd, who
runs the Alley Theatre in Houston.
"We really hit it off and found we
had a lot in common and similar tastes,"
Wildhorn explains. "That theater
became a home away from home for me
in developing my shows, and I try to
reinvent myself every time out.
"I think we're all a little bit of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I think that
everybody has a lot of different colors,
and I was interested in unleashing the
dark side and seeing what that was
like. It was a real composing challenge
to take one character and give him
two musical points of view with two
different styles of music and two dif-
ferent ways of singing.
"The Scarlet Pimpernel is a much
lighter piece, much more comic and a
swashbuckling, romantic adventure.
The Civil War is a piece of Americana,
so the music is a whole different style
— everything from gospel to country
with a little rock 'n' roll in the middle."
Although Wildhorn has written
lyrics for his pop songs, he has worked
with a different lyricist for each musi-
cal. Two-time Academy Award winner
Leslie Bricusse, who has written for
more than 40 musicals and films,
including Victor/Victoria and Willie
Wonka 6- The Chocolate Factory, col-
laborated on Jekyll & Hyde.
"Theater takes so long and it's so
hard that I would really rather be a
collaborator," Wildhorn says.

"In the theater, the music always
comes first. I play ping-pong with the
lyricist — back and forth — until we
get something that we're really excited
about.
Wildhorn's Jewish wedding to
Linda Eder was shown on the E! cable
channel.
"I don't get the E! channel so I
haven't seen it, but a lot of people tell
me they see it all the time," says the
composer, who also raises horses in
upstate New York. "We got married
on our own land, and it was a beauti-
ful day. Why not share it?"
Wildhorn, who has been working
on the musical Svengali, is sharing
another stage production, Havana,
with his wife, who is pregnant.
"The script is being written, and
were already doing the demos," he says.
"It's a vehicle for Linda and will be her
big Broadway show. It's a romantic
musical comedy set in a Havana night-
club in the late '40s, when Havana was
the Paris of the Americas. We'll proba-
bly do an album before as we always do,
and that should be sometime next year.
Linda does the music very naturally,
and I love writing [in that style]."
Wildhorn seems never to be wanti-
ng for projects. He's talking to pro-
ducers about an idea for a musical set
in Tel Aviv and reviewing recording
ideas as creative director of Atlantic
Records, a label dedicated to new
American theater works.
"A song from Jekyll 6- Hyde most
closely expresses who I am," Wildhorn
says. "'This Is the Moment' is a cele-
bration of the spirit of man and tri-
umphing over tough odds." Li

"

Jekyll 6- Hyde runs at 8 p.m.
Tuesdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.
Sundays and 2.p.m. Saturdays
and Sundays, April 21-May 9, at
the Fisher Theatre. $32-$62.
(313) 872-1000.

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MONDAY-SATURDAY

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GREEK CHICKEN SALAD

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SPINACH PIE SERVED WITH RICE

$5.25

VEGGIE STIR FRY SERVED WITH RICE

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VEGGIE OMELETTE OR
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$4.95

•THRU MONTH OF APRIL-

AVAILABLE FOR PRIVATE PARTIES 50-150.

Accommodations up to 50 guest for
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0, •

4/16
1999

Detroit Jewish News

83