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a-model-of-propriety · 1 year ago

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I find it fascinating to trace the development of Jekyll and Lisa's relationship through the various versions of the musical. On the surface, not much changes; Lisa (or Emma, depending on the version) Carew, fiancée of Henry Jekyll, watches helplessly as he dives deeper into his obsession with his experiments, only discovering the true reason for his isolation when it is too late. Whether we look at the Lisa of the early demo recordings, the Emma of the Broadway productions, or any version in between, her role and her fate remains largely unchanged.

Even so, her relationship with Jekyll, specifically its portrayal in their song(s), underwent arguably the most rewrites of the entire show. While (very early drafts of) some songs, such as "Alive" and "Murder, Murder", appear as early as the very first demo recording in 1986 (and by 1987 Lucy's main songs make their appearances as well), Jekyll and Lisa's main duet of "Take Me As I Am" does not appear until 1994's "Gothic Musical Thriller" album, after which the song does not undergo any significant changes.

In TMAIA's place, the pair sing several different songs, including "Love Has Come of Age", a duet version of "Someone Like You", "The First Time", and several more. In the 1986 demo, half of the songs are duets between Lisa and Jekyll!

Out of all the rewrites and cut songs, why did "Take Me As I Am" manage to stick? And why was it the only true Jekyll/Lisa duet to survive revisions?

Though earlier drafts of Jekyll & Hyde devoted more attention to Lisa and Jekyll's relationship (which I, as resident Lisa fan, thoroughly enjoyed), the extra songs did very little, if anything, to progress the plot or develop the show's major motifs. Most early Jekyll/Lisa duets were generic love duets, serving no other purpose but to tell the audience that Jekyll and Lisa were, in fact, in love with each other. Most of these early duets exist mainly to serve this purpose, bogging down the story because they did nothing to address any other aspect of the story than their love and longing. The songs were, in the grand scheme of the show, redundant.

This is where "Take Me As I Am" stands out from the cut songs. While it still serves the important function of Duet To Show How Much They Love Each Other, TMAIA also speaks to the underlying motif of "known vs. unknown". The reason Lisa and Jekyll love each other, at least when we first meet them, is that they truly know, understand, and accept each other. Only when Jekyll starts hiding (pun intended) things from her does their relationship start to show cracks.

From the very beginning of the show, Jekyll's "need to know" the secrets of humanity is set forth as a driving factor of his character. It is in the pursuit of knowledge that he starts down the destructive road of the plot. His desire to know is central to who he is (and, through him, central to the show). Because "knowing" is central to Jekyll's character, Wildhorn centered his and Lisa's relationship on knowing each other. For Jekyll, Lisa is security. She is the only person that knows him, and he knows that he can depend on her to remain a constant in his life. She won't abandon him, no matter how far he dives into his experiments.

Where Lisa represents knowledge and stability, Lucy represents the unknown that Jekyll dives into as the show progresses. Lucy says herself that "no one knows who [she is]", framing her as the opposite of Lisa. Her life is foreign to Jekyll, and she is the person that inspires Jekyll to experiment on himself. Lisa is the known, but Lucy is the unknown that Jekyll desperately needs to understand.

Without "Take Me As I Am", Lisa loses the "known vs. unknown" significance that makes both her and Lucy more compelling characters. None of the earlier songs (with the possible exception of "If You Only Knew", which I desperately want more productions to include) provide that symbolism, which is why, in the end, TMAIA was the only one that could survive revisions.

#seph speaks #jekyll and hyde #jekyll and hyde musical #henry jekyll #lisa carew #emma carew #long post #seph thinks too much #note: this is coming from someone who genuinely likes many of the early duets #as much as i adore lisa and wish she got more time onstage #objectively i do think they made the right choice to trim down the number of hensa duets #though i find it HILARIOUS to see them all lined up next to each other in the completists' script #there's an entire act dedicated to lisa/jekyll duets lmao

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drdonogood · 2 hours ago

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Yes hello I'm hear to listen to your yaps about J&H plz

OMG, HELL YAAAHHHH ok swag. So. Drawing randomly from a hat, some various ideas of mine- My AU/ideas are mish-mashed from some of my favorite Jekyll and Hyde adaptations. And some of my own ideas stitched in. (I'm also putting it out there that this AU has no name yet, and I would love suggestions from anyone) also of there are any typos i'm sorry. This is half word vomit and there are only so many times I can re-read it.

> Other monsters and gothlit bullshit probably exsist in my universe. I just haven't thought enough about it.

> Jekyll is right-handed, Hyde is left-handed. They both have a mole in the same spot under their left eye (his left your right). Hyde's veins look green through his skin- Aaand Hyde vaugly looks like a more feral, compact, and fucked up version of younger Jekyll. These are the absolute basis/my fav JnH ideas I've seen around.

> In that recent Hyde Shitpost, you may notice that he is covered in blood. This is because the pressure of condensing into a smaller body shoots blood out of his face. (There's a lot less blood when turning into Jekyll. A super bad nose bleed- At worse some ear bleeding?) It's kinda like the fun glowing mysterious green goo you see in a lot of adaptations. And I almost went with the green goo too. But decided on blood with freind input 😭 This also means that they have low iron and Jekyll is prone to fainting. (Jekyll has always been a bit of a stress fainter though...Hyde is a bit too energized to faint easily but he might)

> I think I've mentioned it here a little- But my Hyde has a tendency to....eat things that are inedible. Raw fish and rocks and paper and dirt and wood. His stomach acid is strong enough to digest small rocks (because this freak's biology is FUCKED)- anything heftier would be a problem. But it still makes Jekyll... a little ill in the morning. I had the thought that maybe this was because Jekyll had suppressed Pica and it presented itself hevily in Hyde? But I haven't developed that idea too much.

> Hyde has thicker, denser bones. Which helps with his "Amateur Parkour Hobby" (aka: His compulsion to jump and climb on everything like a little freak) He also has beans little callous spots on his hands that help him grip things better! .....beans. sorry.

> Hyde's eyes look like they are void black- but if you shine a light on them, they are iridescent green! Bright lights also seem to bother him quite a lot, and he doesn't like being out on sunny days.

> Jekyll's body was slightly changed/modified after drinking HJ-7, so he has a few toned down physical aspects of Hyde's. Like sharp canines and sharp nails (that he frantically cuts down every time he wakes up) and fucked up eyes and even some of the weird biology stuff (Like the digestive thing, faster heart rate, lower body temperature, slight aversion to light ect. Just not AS much as Hyde has it)

> Jekyll and Hyde don't technically age. Their bodies turn back to the day they took the potion. If one of them was stuck being physical for an extended period of time- they WOULD start to age. But it would be reverted the second they transformed. BUT physical injuries only get slightly healed. So they can't just ITV heal injuries by transforming. It helps! But not entirely.

> Hyde HAS to be let out. It causes major problems if he isn't. He gets VERY stir crazy and it effects the both of them negatively. Physically and mentally. It would eventually trigger an involuntary transformation. And Hyde would be a bit fucked up. Likewise, Hyde uses up too much energy just by existing to stay out for days on end. He has to get back in eventually or else. Yk. Involuntary transformation.

> Also Hyde is biologically both sexes. Something something representing the aforementioned Jekyll closeted Tfem stuff that probably won't ever be addressed. He wouldn't care what pronouns you called them but. Obv victorian era everyone uses He when they see him 🤷🏻‍♂️.

> Depending on how long he gets to live (no set plot so him Jekilling himself could or could not happen) Hyde does infact develop a consciousness. Or...His consciousness develops....Or something. Idk how to describe it in such few words. He's definitely starts off distinct and split enough. But Hyde doesn't think about the nature of his existence or Jekyll all that much. He's clearly far too caught up in the joy and rush on being alive and experiencing things. If he exists for long enough, he will eventually have a pretty bad existential crisis. Bro realises that he thinks, therefore, he is. He'll get better, though. And probably be better off.

> Jekyll and Hyde don't find out until way later that they can see each other and communicate and all that regular fanon stuff. (And even still it takes a long and stubborn while for Jekyll to realise just how conscious Hyde is). They CAN make each other KINDA feel a weird sort of Phantom touch. They can see eachothers apparitions. And maybe the non-physical one can see things in a room even when the physical one isn't looking at it. But that's the extent of their interaction with the real world if they aren't physical.

> I'm not a big fan of Hyde being a serial killer type malicious evil guy? He dosen't represent evil obv. Im much more into that TGS style Hyde characterization. But then again, I don't have a set plot, and the idea is fun sometimes. Like he still has the capacity for murrder.... Maybe as a side AU for my AU. I think reasonably he wouldn't be- and at most kills Carew randomly during an emotional outburst. I do think that Hyde likes to start bar fights and beat the shit out of people, though. He loves the rush of being punched but isn't very happy on the very off chance that he doesn't win. Maybe he isn't evil, but that guy is a freakish asshole. And a bit of a man whore.

> This is my friend @ilovebeesandallthat 's fault. But Jekyll is one of those old people who go CRAZY for the holidays. Like he tries soooo hard to be normal about Christmas. He is not. Jekyll isn't the type to throw big parties (attend them? Maaaybe. Host dinners for his friends and colleagues? Definitely. But throwing a big party? Eeehhh-) And yet every year, high society gets excited for Jekylls' yearly Christmas party. Unfortunately, Jekyll's insane Christmas spirit has pierced the soul of our poor London's night Incarnate- and dragged him down to the hellish depths of Holly Jolly Christmas insanity. I fear both Jekyll AND Hyde turn into the most disgusting Holliday feinds the second it turns midnight on November 1st....

> Oh yeah, also because I'm an unoriginal TGS AND TMA fan- Hyde will sometimes refer to himself as "London's Night Incarnate." Beacuse, I thought it sounded like just the sort of thing he would think was cool.

> Lanyon and Jekyll's families were very close. They both were born and grew up in Scotland (Scottish Jekyll truthhhh sorry). They moved to England for university, and for the first chunk, it was them against everyone else. But then Jekyll started hanging around this 'Utterson' guy and started speaking in an English accent and started being uber charismatic with everyone- and it very much bothered Lanyon. He still stuck with Jekyll- but this is what started the strain on their relationship. Lanyon did end up being close to Utterson. But now his relationship with Utterson is better than his relationship with Jekyll....

> Despie all that- Sorry folks, Lanyon is the token straight (I HAVE joked abour him being a Henriel fudanshi though lolll. He loves the drama). He has a wife named Lindsey (she's a nurse!), and they love each other very very much (even though Lanyon is a grumpy ass stubborn old fart). They have 2 adult kids who have moved out and live elsewhere but visit as much as they can. They had a Scottish wedding, and Jekyll was the best man (even though Lanyon considered making it Utterson out of spite...he had to keep the family peace). Utterson also got to be there.

> Lucy and Emma exist in this world, too! Beacuse I like them too much to leave them out despite my beef with the musical and my more book based ideas. Emma is a...bit less developed. She's a wee inspired by some stuff I have seen about Hyde and Seek (the MazM spin off that I haven't played yet). She is Jekyll's ex-fiancé. She left because- despite how much she cared about him- his work was clearly too much. And honestly, she was a wee bit scared of it and how...weird he would get about it. She just couldn't take it anymore and knew she deserved better. Even despite not getting married, they act like a divorced couple on the off chance they cross paths. BUUUUt they still care about each other. Just...not in a romantic way anymore. And they kinda have their own lives going on. She has a husband now and some grown kids! She hasn't been in London so...she actually doesn't know what's going on with Jekyll. Maybe she finds out later, ooooo.

> I probably won't delve TOO much into Lucy's character as much as I could rn. I have...a LOT I could say about her. I'll save that for another post since I'm tryyying to not prolong this and also keep it at least a little on the topic of JnH spesifically. I always thought that if I *did* have an adaptation of my AU- she'd be either the main or a frequent POV. She isn't a love interest or a victim of Hyde. In fact her and Hyde are kinda besties??? She's like a middle ground between ITV/TGS Lucy and musical (which I haven't yet watched ITV but have been infodumped about it) She meets Jekyll...somewhere idk- and has an interesting philosophical conversation with him. Which is a cover for her pickpocketing him. He is...well aware that she is doing so- but doesn't say anything about it. Much like in the musical, he gives her his card and tells her to keep in touch if she ever needs anything. Later down the line, she gets approached by a weirdo in a bar who yaps her ear off about the most ridiculous things. She keeps expecting this guy to ask for her services and get this over with- but he never does. And she keeps seeing this guy day after day- until one of his yap sessions goes on so long that he's just following her home and yapping (you can probably take the hint that yes, this is Hyde). And now she's starting to realise this guy isn't threatening- he's just weird. And probably not human....and maybe even a tad bit endearing? Mostly weird, though. And now he Kimmy Gibbler-ing his way around her apartment in the middle of the night. Crawling through her window when he feels like it to hang out and show her gift her all the cool new trinkets he has stolen and raid her fridge and bring her dead things. And she starts to appreciate it beacuse it starts to break up her monotonous and depressing daily cycle. They take care of each other and it's nice (once again- can get more into it in another post)

> Hyde is a disgusting little slime ball who is somehow always covered in filth and grime. Lucy fucking hates this.

>Hyde has an accidental common theme of being a Devil-On-The-Shoulder to more than JUST Jekyll. He tends to bring out the most weird and hidden sides of people- which is....fitting considering what he is. It's something that happend accidently as I was thinking of character interactions- but something that I think is really really fun....

ANYWAY THAT'S ALL FOR NOW- MORE LATER.....MAYBE 🫡🫡🫡

#I have a lot more if anyone asks more specific questions!#my miserable jekyll and hyde au #jekyll and hyde #eds asks #eds HCs #the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde #henry jekyll #edward hyde #hastie lanyon #gabriel john utterson #gabriel utterson #henriel #Hyde and seek #maybe idk #lucy harris #emma carew #im so so so so excited sharing these ideas you have no idea UGUGUGH

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