All human beings, as we meet them, are comingled out of good and evil. And no better a way to meet good and evil in the peak of spooky season than at The Opera House in Havre de Grace as they present Jekyll & Hyde as directed by Constantine Maroulis. In a TheatreBloom exclusive sit down, we’ve had the distinguished pleasure of sitting down with this two-time Tony-nominated performer to discuss his directorial debut here and what the project has meant to him.
Thank you so very much for giving us some of your time, prior to rehearsing this evening here in Havre de Grace for Jekyll & Hyde. What was the initiative, what brought you down here from New York to Havre de Grace, which isn’t even on a map for most people. What was the drive? How did you get here?
Constantine Maroulis: It started a couple years ago when one of my bands came through Havre de Grace at The STAR Centre and they’ve done a great job repurposing that space, they have a lot of national shows that come through doing one-nighters. Everything from classic rock reviews and tributes to people like me when I was here with another American Idol singer, Kris Allen not long ago. And then there’s the obvious connections with me and my work on Broadway and such. I know some of the creatives here are fans of “the Broadway” and we’ve had conversations about those things. So when Jekyll came up in their season, they just asked me if I’d be interested in directing it since I’d starred in it on Broadway in a revival and toured all around the world with Frank Wildhorn, the composer. We took a look at it and here we are.
That’s amazing! What is it like getting to take that experience of having starred in it on Broadway in the titular role and turn it into directorial experience?
Constantine: I’ve had the privilege of working with some fantastic directors my whole career for 30 years. I’ve been doing it since I was 17 or 18 years old. For me, I’ve read all the great books, I trained in drama school where we read all these great books on directing, had so many conversations and so many classes and such but I’ve actually never directed a show before. So this is my debut. The opportunity presented itself and I think you just start to ask yourself a few questions like, “can I do this?” “Is this feasible?” It’s out of town, there are some limitations that we may or may not have, but I thought, “No, we should do this. I can do this.”
I know this show, I know this story. I feel like I can bring a lot of clarity to it, a lot of integrity to it. And here we are. Now I don’t fancy myself to be the next big director or something but if the opportunity comes up to maybe direct shows that I’m familiar with or something organic and new where I’m working with a composer or a playwright that I connect with? Then sure, I would take a look at it. I’ve always fancied myself as someone that is versatile.
I love versatility in a human. That’s a fantastic thing to have and a fantastic thing to be.
Constantine: I’m okay at a few things. I’m not really good at any of them.
I think they call that Jack of all Trades, master of none. But I think that also makes for a broader range of enjoyment in all things as it means you can always learn something from your experiences. Now what would you say has been your biggest challenge up to this point in the rehearsal and production process?
Constantine: As talented as this group is, they are not full-time actors, right? So they are a mix of community people, young people that are either still training or in college and getting life experience, they’re working and they want a path in the performing arts, and people that are living in the community. They have a lot of talent, they do some shows, they like to be a part of the process. But we’re limited with our schedule. Rather than concentrating them into a four-week, intensive rehearsal process, a week of tech, a week of previews— and that’s at the bare minimum— and a good month of run, we’re basically spreading it out over a little more time but we get a little done each day.
The challenge to get the continuity up to par is one that we’re dealing with but so far so good, we’re on schedule. We’ve had some conflicts but here we are. And we’re working through them.
Love hearing that. How is The Opera House space working out for you? I imagine that stage is probably a little bit smaller than some of the stages that you’re used to working on.
Constantine: Yes it is but I love a space like that. I just did this beautiful new production of Next To Normal in Houston. There’s a place there that I’ve toured all my big Broadway shows and other tours through, and it’s a 2,000+ seat performing arts center. Attached to that space is this 400-500 seater. It just kind of sits there. It’s that interesting, medium space where most people think, “I can’t make money in this room so what do we do with it?” And that’s a great space and you can do so much with it. This Opera House is similar to that. We’re really bringing the audience into the show.
Ooh. How so?
Constantine: The idea of this gorgeous neighborhood Opera House next to an old fire house, it has this great vibe. So we’re going to transform the entire place into essentially ‘The Red Rat’ which is the club that Lucy dances and works in and it’s going to represent the gutter of our story. The story is about the duality of man, of good and evil. And how maybe there’s a little bit of both in all of us. We open the audience into this immersive experience. The players will be throughout the crowd in the pre-show. There will be additional music playing in the pre-show. We’re hoping that you’re not going to be sure if its today or is this a 90’s club in Germany or is this Victorian era? Is it now? Is everyone dead? What’s happening. That’s kind of the vibe and the players are really excited about that. I don’t want to make it just about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I really want to highlight all of the talent as much as we can.
I do like hearing that approach. Is there a moment in Jekyll & Hyde that specifically defines what this vision of the production that you’re doing means to you?
Constantine: Great question. What’s interesting is when I did the show some ten or twelve years ago, we toured it for a whole year. We developed it, there were some changes, we really took the show apart from its origins. It’s got this cult following, Jekyll & Hyde. There have been many versions of it. Different scripts, different books, the original concept album versus the original cast-recording, versus my version with Deborah Cox. There are all of these different versions. And every one of them is different. I got to know Leslie Bricusse, one of the great writers— if you googled him you’d be astounded at his career—he actually wrote the lyrics and the book with Frank Wildhorn as composer. With this production, we are doing the production to paper that has been licensed. The orchestrations are a certain way and the script is a certain way and we’re having some artistic flexibility in there when it’s appropriate.
But I took all of that recitative out in our production on Broadway in 2013. It can be repetitive. But in the nature of this style it’s okay and we’re going to make it work. There’s a lot of that before the songs, characters having this need to explain of all that and it’s kind of like opera, it can be repetitive. But we’re finding ways to make it new and keep making it a new discovery. That’s been both kind of enlightening and also challenging. To answer your question, what brings me joy, in short, is that we’re able to make all of that make sense. I think in the past it’s been difficult because it just sounds repetitive and it’s not clear.
It’s very easy to lose an audience in that repetitive, explanatory, recitative too.
Constantine: It is. And everything is a little overwritten, isn’t it?
Didn’t they get paid by the word back in the day or something like that?
Constantine: Sure! Haha, they may have. Or paid by the notes. What did Salieri say to Mozart? Too many notes.
Exactly. Do you have a musical number that speaks to you on a visceral level that you just love in Jekyll & Hyde?
Constantine: Oh wow, I mean there’s so many huge musical moments, it’s really crazy. Frank was just in this groove of song writing. He was writing popular songs for the likes of Whitney Houston and all these divas. And then also writing these bombastic 90’s anthems for musical theatre, which is just crazy. At one point (1999) he had three shows on Broadway at the same time. Pimpernel (at the Minskoff Theatre The Scarlet Pimpernel), Jekyll & Hyde (at the Plymouth Theatre), and The Civil War (at the St. James Theatre.) It’s a lot of shows to have up on Broadway all at the same time.
All the songs play well in a concert or in this setting, but there is something about the sequence that Jekyll has at the top of the show with “Lost in the Darkness.” It’s this sort of prayer or almost like a last goodbye to the man that we find out is his father, who is dying but really from madness. He sings this lovely sort of little prayer to him, “Lost in the Darkness” and then it goes into “I Need to Know”, which is sometimes not in the show but I love that it’s in this version of the show. And we’re doing it. It’s a huge song. And it’s just got such a great progression, it’s almost cinematic. I do love that song.
And then there are the obvious hits, “This is the Moment”, you have the transformation from Jekyll into Hyde, you have Lucy’s big hit, “Someone Like You”, we have “In His Eyes”, they’re all just bangers. You know, “Bring On the Men”, and such.
Oh good, “Bring On the Men” is one of my favorites, personally.
Constantine: Let me tell you, this girl playing Lucy, Molly (Molly McVicker), I knew right away— she was the one. And she’s only 20! We had a huge turnout for auditions and you have to make some decisions. I had some actors in play who were maybe a little more mature-type? And that was really interesting as well, but Molly just had this vulnerability and yet this strength and this huge voice and a subtly about her. It was just easy. We’re stressing more of that. She’s so good that she can do less and it’s still so effective. We’re working on those kinds of things. She and Stephanie (Stephanie Meadowcroft), who plays Emma, and John (John Murphy) who plays Dr. Jekyll…and Mr. Hyde…they’re younger. It’s but it’s a very believable young. Like I believe Molly as Lucy is the kind of Eponine-teen or very young 20-something that’s a runaway that’s stuck with this guy Spider for a room over this disgusting slum place that she has to dance and sing to these pirates and such and basically walk the streets at night, but then of course there’s a madman on the loose and she’s got nobody. Nobody’s ever been kind to her until she meets this gentleman, who doesn’t try to take advantage of her or anything.
It sounds fascinating and I’ve been told there are quite a few pre-sales, that this is going to be the hot-button ticket to get this spooky season.
Constantine: For me, I’m actually excited that it’s a smaller space. I think it’ll make for a really amazing experience for everybody. It’s going to sound great in there. It’s going to look great in there. We’re doing a lot with very little, that’s the plan. You have that whole proscenium space but we’re really working to bring that into the actual house of the theatre. And for you to walk in and it never to look like a theatre space with the house lights up and such. You’re walking right into the vibe. There’s a pre-show music bed of goth, tribal beats and such and this growing drone. And these players running around. I have people in the windows. The set is very simple but it’s effective. Then I have this really cool cast. I mean I wish we had a million dollars to do this the way we all want to do it but I’m really excited about getting to October 11th with the kids.
Would you say that you find immersive theatre to be the type of theatre that speaks to you more than other types of theatre?
Constantine: No, I just think that for this space, this experience, this gig, this moment…that’s what is calling me. That sort of vibe and that kind of approach. To be able to play into the fact that it’s October, that there’s Halloween in the air, there’s a chill in the air, I think that it’s just something that’s going to inform this experience a bit more. I love anything done well, big or small, Broadway or a basement somewhere. Same as a recording artist and performing artist for me. I love playing all different spaces and places. We’re going to pull off a miracle in that little shoebox and it’s going to be fun.
What is it that you’re hoping people are going to take away from coming out to this experience?
Constantine: I grew up doing community theatre. I just wanted the opportunity to get on stage and consistently get on stage, whether I was playing leads or ensemble. It was show after show after show, people weren’t getting paid, they were there because they loved it and they just wanted to build a show. There’s nothing like that rehearsal experience. When you have a good vibe in the cast, seeing your friends every night, building stuff, working together, it’s amazing. We’ve got that here. And they all have normal gigs during the day and some of them, I’m sure, still want to pursue this professionally as well, outside of the younger people who are really driven to do it. I think it’s been a great experience.
For me, I want people to support the local performing arts. You guys are so lucky in this city to have such great support from the municipal and all of these super women back here that make this town really roll. You have such a diverse selection of stuff here and it’s a great historical town. I’d love to circle back to that Revolutionary War era and know what they were really doing here, what kinds of plays and little operettas. Support the community. A small company like this can pull off something pretty great. The fact that they’re willing to invest in bringing a two-time Tony-nominated Broadway star in to direct their show and that they are going above and beyond for their community to just keep pushing the levels, and leveling up, it’s great.
You’re absolutely right when you say those super women. Bambi Johnson is a powerhouse all her own. Barb Hartzell has had this production in my schedule for so long that my google calendar actually still says “Dracula” because that was what they were originally looking at for this fall-slot.
Constantine: Oh wow! Maybe we could do that another season! Oh shoot! That one I would maybe have to bring Frank (composer Frank Wildhorn) in on. He and I have talked about a revisal of that. He’s had so much success in Asia with a lot of his titles, really all over the world. In fact, Bonnie & Clyde is in the West End, killing it! It’s an all-new, completely reimagined Bonnie & Clyde and it’s just killing it. He’s got shows all over the place. He’s got a Dracula in, I think it’s Seoul, that’s just destroying it. There’s a way to completely reimagine Dracula and he and I are working on that but hey, maybe we’ll toss-in a community version of it here first!
That would be out-of-out-of-town tryouts!
Constantine: I mean there’s probably a way to work with the union to get me and all that happening, who knows, but that’s what’s so interesting about these gals here, they’re so open to whatever. If it becomes a situation where they can have equity guest artists here? Why not! They have The STAR Centre, which is such an amazing space, they have the Opera House, that could be really, really cool.
Yes it would. Now, if you could be in Jekyll & Hyde, excluding factors like age, vocal range and talent, gender, etc., as any character but not Jekyll/Hyde, who would you be?
Constantine: In this show? Oh wow. Well it would have to be Lucy! Because she’s got the great songs and she’s just got so many interesting layers. So does Emma. What I love about Emma…you would think she’s a stereotype of some kind of aristocrat gal, arranged marriage, wealthy family but no. She’s got this sense of humor, she’s very independent, very strong. And just because she supports Henry in his vision doesn’t make her in any way like the typical woman of the time. Most women of the time wouldn’t have had the privilege to do that but she’s wonderfully supportive of him and that makes it even more complex because he probably could, if he had more time, really explain to her what he saw and what he wanted to do. But he ran out of time, ultimately. And there was something about Lucy and the freedom that she had and that just blew him away. He said, ‘look at this girl, look what she’s doing, look at this place, look at the strength she exudes, I don’t need these other people to approve this thing I want to do, this experiment, I’m going to do it on my own and I’m going to perform it on myself, not on someone else.’ There’s high stakes.
Lucy’s great but Emma’s great too. And then you’ve got ones like Lady Beaconsfield, she’s a fun one. She sucks. She just sucks! You just kind of want her to die so that would be fun for everyone to hate you. Savage is fun because he’s just a punk. He’s a spoiled aristocrat who just sits on the board, goes to parties, and wants to just hang out and party. He’s bored with everyone and everything and I think that would be kind of fun as well. For this production, we’re doing some fun things with gender and such, which is cool.
I love hearing all of this. If you had the tonic, that could split yourself from your good self and your evil self, would you take it?
Constantine: Oh wow. Um…maybe it would have saved me a couple of times along the way. But I think for me, it’s what makes us all interesting. Being able to keep those kinds of heavy feelings at bay and to really embrace love and all of that as well. The best of both worlds. I think it’s probably in everyone’s best interests to be in touch with both sides. You need to have access to the discipline to keep the heavy vibes at bay and to embrace love and meet somewhere in the middle. So no, I don’t think I actually would.
What would you say has been your big personal takeaway as a performer, as a director, as a human being, working on this project here, away from your hometown, with the strictures you’ve talked about, what is that big personal learning lesson for you?
Constantine: I think every day is a learning experience for sure in anything that we do. For me, I love collaboration. I think that this experience has only enriched my love for that. Doing things on the other side, I’ve produced and such, but working with the actors in this capacity as an actor myself, and getting to talk about the moment before, what’s happening in the scene, the action, and let’s create blocking that really informs the action and moves the scene forward, let’s try to create organic pictures on stage, I dig it. I’d like to do more of it. I think if anything, I’ve discovered that I really like it and I’d like to do more of it.
Wonderful! Why, especially when we can attest to the fact that Havre de Grace has a diverse and well-supported theatre scene, why do you want people to come out and see this production of Jekyll & Hyde?
Constantine: First come see your friends because they’re going to be great. We have some great leads. The singing is awesome, the music is great. It’s Halloween, it’s the perfect show for the season. It’s a beautiful little Opera House. It’s a tight little two-hour piece. Frankly, I think you probably don’t get to see Jekyll as much. I know they had Sweeney here last year, so fans that love that sort of dark-yet-campy, darkened comedy but also really intense, big-beautiful opera sound, then you’ll love this. This is also along those dangerous lines in musical theatre and not a show that you get to see very often.
Is there anything else you wanted to say about the experience of being here in Havre de Grace?
Constantine: I really dig it. It’s my kind of town. It’s only two and a half hours from my house in New Jersey, so on a day off, I’ll get home, see my daughter— she just started eighth grade— and she’s in a million things all at once. This weekend I’m shooting on a movie in the city a couple of days, and then I have a show this Sunday night way out in Stepping Stone with my band and then I’ll come back on Monday, we’ll hit the ground running again, and we’ll get a little closer to tech, to running this thing, and it’s been a wild few weeks for sure. I’m not entirely sure that actually answered your question, though.
Oh, that was just a chance for you to talk about the experience if you had anything else you wanted to say.
Constantine: Basically when I’m here, I focus on what are we getting done tonight? I have notes— though a lot of times I’m literally drawing it out, almost like an offensive coordinator. I’m drawing out plays. It takes me back to this wonderful teacher I had in drama school who taught directing, Steve McConnell, and I read Peter Brook’s The Empty Space and The Open Door, and honestly I recalled all of that. Sometimes you just have to draw it out and map out where the strength is in the blocking. That’s why I wanted to utilize more of an empty space rather than some huge set. It’s a bit more about creating entrances and those movement pieces with the actors.
And I tell you the other thing that I love about this and I think it’s pretty exclusive to this community setting is that when I leave here, when I head off after rehearsal at the end of the night? They’re all still outside in the parking lot talking to each other, hanging out. They just want to hang out. Where do you see that? That stands out to me. Jaded professionals are just like “get me the heck out of here, I’ve got my train to catch.” They’re hangry. They’re hungry. But not these kids. It’s so interesting to see that dynamic.
Amazing. Now you’ve got one final question. If you had to sum up your experience working here with Jekyll & Hyde in Havre de Grace in just one word, which word do you use?
Constantine: Mellow.
Jekyll & Hyde plays October 11th 2024 through October 20th 2024 at The Opera House of Havre de Grace— 121 N. Union Avenue in downtown historic Havre de Grace, MD. Tickets must be purchased in advance and can be procured by calling the box office at 443-502-2005 or by purchasing them online.
