I’m surprised
Andrew Lloyd Webber hasn’t written a musical about the legend of Jack the
Ripper. With its Victorian sensibilities—and sensationalism, it would seem the
natural successor to PHANTOM. Tell Webber not to bother. Steven Bergman and
Christopher Michael DiGrazia’s sardonic JACK THE RIPPER: THE WHITECHAPEL
MUSICAL (playing through April 12th) brilliantly captures all the
grisly details (and then some) of the 1888 London murders. The sweeping musical takes
the insatiable press to task for hyping the mayhem just to sell papers. Their
ever present cry of “Crime of the Century” is precisely what anchors the
musical.
Bergman’s
gorgeous music soars over the lurid story with lush melodies and catchy tunes
which lodge themselves in your brain. There’s even a vaudeville turn to mock
the stymied police inspector (“Smarter than you”). The Bergman/DiGrazia musical
touches on the many theories of the Ripper’s identity (that he was a surgeon,
even that he was Queen Victoria’s
son!) and comes up with one more!
Director Joey
DeMita’s dark, brooding production doesn’t stint on the raw aspects of life in
the street. We see the prostitutes at work and the crimson gore when the Ripper
disembowels his victims. (For my taste, it was a bit too explicit, yet another depiction
of women being brutalized. Now that I think about it, the omnipresent,
voyeuristic images of women being tortured and killed, which dominate our
present day culture, probably got their start in the 19th century London press.)
DeMita and music
director Ben Oehikers have a gifted group of singer/actors to tell the tale,
with Matt Phillips leading the cast as Jack. You can see it on Phillips’ face,
as Jack slowly deteriorates into total madness. The savvy book gives Michael
Levesque, as the inspector, demons of his own and Levesque deftly navigates his
journey. Kyle W. Carlson, as the earnest doctor, impresses, as do Anne Marie
Alvarez, Molly Gervis, Lori L’Italien and Katie Preisig as four of the Ripper’s
prey. The musical makes them rich, full characters, not just victims… and can
they deliver a ballad!
Hollyann
Marshall plays the fifth prostitute with such anguish that we wonder, as the
inspector does, what she’s hiding. Kathleen Comber, too, as the disdainful
barmaid, gives her character oodles of spirit. Eric Rehm, Jermaine Golden and
Cristhian Mancinas-Garcia are front and center and frightening as the headline
hungry press.
DeMita also
designed the ingenious, deceptively simple, vertical set of softly glowing,
over-hanging windows and dim streetlights (eerily designed by P J Strachman)
which counterpoint Bergman’s sumptuous music and underscore the haunting,
horrific story.