#david jakobs

Jonathan Larson's RENT - Dortmund 2023/24

I drew Lucheni (Jakobs) from Elisabeth

mood, David... mood

I always feel like the role of Henry Jekyll / Edward Hyde is basically the definition of a baritenor role (basically, mostly baritone with the ability to solidly hit tenor notes). However, the role has been played by people who are more on the baritone, deeper-toned side of things (Chuck Wagner, Ethan Freeman?), and also more recently more on the higher tenor side (Drew Sarich, David Jakobs, Constantine Maroulis, duhhh).

Furthermore, the vocal differences between Jekyll & Hyde. Some actors change their voice a lot to play Hyde. Sometimes the vocal difference actors do for Hyde manifests as sounding generally deeper and “rougher” (uhh Cuccioli), other times it can sound just raspier (David Jakobs), among other things. Some actors don’t change the sound of their voice THAT much and just make it more of a BIG acting shift.

My questions (which you can totally pick and choose which ones you feel like answering, this isn’t an assignment even though it totally sounds like one lol) are:

1) Do you prefer the sound of a higher-sounding or a lower-sounding actor in the role? Why?

2) Does Hyde need to sound different than Jekyll? Why? What do you imagine the vocal difference between Jekyll & Hyde to be?

3) Who are your top 3 favorite voices in the part, and why? (Because I know if I just said “favorite” a lot of answers would be Warlow lol.) You don’t need to pick an order.

I’m beyond curious about what you think about this. If you don’t think that the voice is that important then say it, I won’t cyber bully you lol. I might just be a vocalist who thinks too much about Jekyll & Hyde, but I think that the vocal aspect of playing the role is really integral.

Judas Iscariot, “Superstar” Costume (David Jakobs) Theatre Bonn (2013) and Theatre Dortmund (2014-15) Jesus Christ Superstar Production (2/2)

Stage/Costume Design: Beatrice von Bomhard

Jesus: Mark Seibert (Bonn) and Alexander Klaws (Dortmund)

Mary Magdalene: Patricia Meeden (Bonn+Dortmund)

Costume Notes: His markings remind me a bit of a stylized geometric skeleton. From the looks of it, it appears to be a sheer shirt with black markings on it (thanks to @saveugoodmadam for the info, I watched the Superstar recording closer and you were right it’s a shirt)

Production Notes: This was a co-production between Theatre Bonn and Theatre Dortmund. From what I know Judas and Mary stayed the same while the Jesus, Herod, Peter, and Caiaphas actor changed.