Though their one-year contracts expire Apr. 29, all three leads in Broadway's Jekyll & Hyde have signed extensions and will stay with the show at least a few months longer.
Cuccioli's spokesperson, Judy Katz, said the star will stay with J&H through Jan. 3, 1999. Production spokesperson Rick Miramontez told Playbill On-Line (Mar. 19) Christiane Noll and alternate Jekyll/Hyde Robert Evan would also stay through that date. Linda Eder will remain until Labor Day but take three weeks off in May to wed the show's composer, Frank Wildhorn. No word on who will understudy during those weeks.
As the one-year anniversary of Jekyll & Hyde nears, PACE Theatricals is changing the show's marketing campaign and look. The dripping blood letters "Jekyll & Hyde" will remain, only now they'll be placed against a soft-focus backdrop of Cuccioli's breathing menacingly (and sensually?) against the side of Eder's neck. Serino Coyne, which designed the first campaign, is also doing the second.
Asked about the design choice, PACE president Scott Zeiger told Playbill On-Line (Mar. 19), "We wanted to reinvent ourselves from a marketing perspective. A show's logo can get stale if it's not reinvented and reawakened. We wanted to spin it to a younger, hipper demographic. It's startling and sexy and attention-grabbing. We're here to stay; we want that to resonate, and we're adapting all our ads, window cars, subway posters to this new look."
In other Jekyll & Hyde news, the hit Broadway musical is booking a U.S. tour to launch sometime in the 1998-99 season. A major party is being planned for the show's second year on Broadway, at which time, the production spokesperson says, the tour itinerary will be announced.
The tour will be produced by PACE Theatrical Group, the same company that produced the 1995-96 tour that helped establish Jekyll & Hyde among fans across the country.
In further J&H news, composer Frank Wildhorn has set the date for tying the knot with star Linda Eder. As reported by syndicated columnist Cindy Adams, the two will become one May 3.
