RAGGGH SOMEONE WHO LIKES J&H IN 2024!! I saw Jekyll hc/drawing requests, I have a few! (if you're still taking them, no pressure): 1. Sleepy Jekyll, exhausted, disheveled, tired man, please let him rest 2. I have never seen Emma/Jekyll cuddles and I would love to! 3. I like to think Jekyll haaaates having to be presentable all the time, so maybe let him dance to something? Not elegantly lol, he's like doing the Victorian version of rocking lol 4. Jekyll has always seemed like a gentle man to me, I'd love to see him interacting with a stray animal? Again all of these are totally optional!!
emma carew i am going to think about you FOREVER. like you are everything to me you don’t get it…how do you stay so gracious when your entire future with your fiance you’ve spent all your energy nurturing, protecting, and DEFENDING is falling apart in front of you eyes? when you are just as passionate as your male partner but are overlooked because of your femininity? HOW??
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.
the essays* (fanfiction*) i could write** (have written**) about this woman.
generally speaking i think she has a lot more depth that both certain productions or even fans give her credit for. she works best as a character in tandem w/ lucy because they need to play off each other as foils. while lucy seems outwardly cynical and world-weary (when they're being based about her), she clings to hope and craves simplicity. inversely, emma should come off as very sweet and demure, while she actually has a lot of passion and intensity within her, and wants something more substantial than what is expected of her, especially by the more controlling men in her life (her father and simon). i think this aspect of her character is so important because it shows why she's so drawn to jekyll in the first place and i believe that the ending doesn't make sense if they aren't truly and deeply in love with each other.
also i think she should kiss jekyll and hyde on the mouth. with tongue.
my lukewarm jekyll and hyde take is that andrea rivette is my favorite lisa/emma. she brings such a unique authority to her and i LOVE it. could write a paper on her choices in that role