Bloody familiar murders

A newsboy, clad in the knickers and cap you'd expect, is drawing attention to the 'ideous murder of a local bishop.

Passersby on the London street exclaim to each other about the horror of it all.

Mr. Hyde, meanwhile, is skulking about, ready to commit even more 'ideous crimes.

The Wyoming County Players make all this happen simultaneously, as they sing: Murder, murder in the night air! Murder, murder, it's a right scare! Bloody murder in the night!

It's a long song, interspersed with a lot of action that moves the story forward, said Kim Whipple, who choreographed the movement for that scene and can't help feeling proud of it.

Welcome to Jekyll and Hyde, a musical that opens tonight at Keystone College and shines a spotlight on some familiar characters.

There's Henry Jekyll, a brilliant young doctor and researcher who might be going too far with his experiments. And there's Mr. Hyde, his alter ego, whom Whipple describes as the worst in all of us. He's a vain, uninhibited, violent monster.

The show's light-hearted moments are few and far between, Whipple said, as Hyde murders several people, including Lucie, a streetwalker who fell in love with Jekyll.

Near the end, Jekyll's high-society fiancée, Emma, also will become a target.

When Hyde comes after her, she's able to draw out a little bit of Henry to save herself, said Whipple, who plays that part.

But it's too late to save Jekyll himself.

It's like ‘West Side Story,' Whipple said. That's what I compare it to.

The play's set and special effects are fascinating, she added, crediting director Ryan Phillips for a dramatic laboratory in which flames flare up when Mr. Hyde is talking and flicker down when Dr. Jekyll is talking.