Preview
Identifier
Revue Program_Page_32
Creation Date
4-23-2021
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Theatre and Performance Studies
Description
DRAMATURGY - “HIS WORK AND NOTHING MORE”
“His Work and Nothing More” is a song from the 1990 musical Jekyll and Hyde. Music was written by Frank Wildhorn and the book was written by Leslie Bricusse and together, Wildhorn and Bricusse wrote the lyrics.. Jekyll and Hyde was loosely based on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde written in 1886 by Robert Louis Stevenson. The musical premiered in Houston in 1990 before making its Broadway debut in 1997. The style of music is said to be gothic with a dark, ominous and powerful score. A film adaption of the musical was set to film in late 2020 however was postponed due to the current pandemic.
The story follows Henry Jekyll, a doctor who believes the reason that his father is completely comatose is because of the evil in his soul. Therefore, he does research to find a way to separate the evil from his father. After his research is complete, Jekyll conducts the experiment on himself. By doing this, he then creates a persona of pure evil that terrorizes London and murders its citizens. This persona calls himself Mr. Edward Hyde. It is now Jekyll’s top priority to rid himself of this persona so that he may go on and live a normal life with his fiancé Emma.
“His Work and Nothing More” appears near the end of the first act. In this song, Jekyll’s friend Utterson has noticed his strange behavior and warns Jekyll that he should not let his work consume him. At the same time, Emma and her father, Sir Danvers, argue about Jekyll’s work habits and how Emma’s marriage to this man needs to possibly be reconsidered because of his current state.
Publisher
Arkansas State University
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Theatre Program
Keywords
musical, compliation, retrospective, medley
