Jekyll & Hyde & Manilow Plan Pre-West End Tours???

According to today's edition of The Stage, the long-rumoured transfer of the Broadway musical thriller Jekyll and Hyde - based on Robert Louis Stevenson's gorily gothic tale about a doctor whose fight with his inner self unleashes the horror of his darkest desires - is back on the cards. Anthony Williams has reportedly secured the rights, with plans to cast early in 2003 and then take the show on a UK tour in 2004. Originally seen in the US in the 1980s, Jekyll and Hyde was substantially revised by Leslie Bricusse (book and lyrics) and Frank Wildhorn (music) for Broadway, where it ran for nearly four years up to January 2001 and starred Baywatch's David Hasselhoff in the title role(s). A year ago (See The Goss, 20 Dec 2002), rumour had it that Jekyll and Hyde would be imminently moving into the Phoenix Theatre, evicting Willy Russell's long-running Blood Brothers after more than 13 years in the West End. In another Williams-related titbit, the director/choreographer-turned-producer is said to be remounting Barry Manilow's Copacabana, the stage show, based on the singer's 1978 hit single of the same name, which previously played 18 months in the West End. The new tour is due to kick off next summer, culminating with a return to the capital.

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