The prospect of seeing composer Frank Wildhorn's Jekyll & Hyde onstage conjures up certain things: big soaring ballads, bloody murders left and right and a leading man flipping his hair back and forth like Willow Smith while singing "Confrontation," the big angry "duet" between the alter egos of the show's title.
Robert Cuccioli (Spider-Man, Turn off the Dark) did it as the original star of the musical in 1997. Soap hunk Jack Wagner did it when he stepped in as a replacement. Rocker Sebastian Bach followed suit. Robert Evan, Chuck Wagner…they all did it. Heck, even David Hasselfhoff tossed his hair around, and there's glorious chest-baring video documentation (see below!) from the DVD release.
But new Jekyll & Hyde star Constantine Maroulis, who famously flipped his hair back and forth on TV as a finalist on American Idol and as the Tony-nominated star of Rock of Ages? Not doing it.
Based on early performances of the musical's new national tour at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts in California, director Jeff Calhoun has found a clever new way to stage the climactic scene. We won't spoil the fun by revealing the trick, but Maroulis' hair stays put.
Jekyll & Hyde, which also stars R&B diva Deborah Cox (Aida) and Teal Wicks (Wicked), plays at La Mirada through September 30. The 19-city tour runs through March, 2013 before opening on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in April.