The one thing you can say about Frank Wildhorn is that he doesn't give up. Like The Scarlet Pimpernel, Jekyll & Hyde , based on R. L. Stevenson's classic depiction of a split personality run amok, went through several rewrites and casts--each show is a work-in-neverending-progress for Wildhorn. This recording immortalizes the show's classic Broadway cast: Robert Cuccioli as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Linda Eder as Lucy, and Christiane Noll as Emma. Appropriately for the show, Wildhorn's score is both tempestuously romantic and unabashedly ominous. While Cuccioli handles both parts with elan, Wildhorn saved his best songs for Lucy and Emma, confirming that he really is the contemporary master of the power ballad. --Elisabeth Vincentelli
