Jekyll and Hyde coming to the Empire

Who's this devilish chap? Why, it's Wet Wet Wet man Marti Pellow, who is, we are told, about to "unleash his dark side". This week sees the regional publicity launch for the latest big show in which he stars - a new Bill Kenwright tour of the Broadway production of Jekyll and Hyde. It's not coming to Liverpool until May, but there's nothing quite like a jpg of a firey-eyed gothic baddy in a Seinfeld-style puffy shirt to sway an editorial decision.

 Promisingly described as "glamorous, sexy and deliciously wicked in equal measures" in the blurb, Jekyll and Hyde is based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella. Pellow stars as a brilliant but obsessive scientist whose sadistic alter ego wreaks havoc across Victorian London in a dark tale of love, redemption and the seductive power of evil. Written by Frank Wildhorn and Academy Award-winning composer Leslie Bricusse (Stop The World I Want to Get Off, Scrooge, Doctor Dolittle, Victor/Victoria, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), and featuring the hit song This Is The Moment, the Broadway production of Jekyll and Hyde ran for over 1500 performances between 1997 and 2001. Pellow has carved himself a solid reputation in musical theatre and was last seen on the Empire stage in The Witches of Eastwick in 2008. And he's not the first pop hellraiser to take on Jekyll and Hyde - a quick YouTube shows former Skid Row singer and Gilmore Girls botherer, the brilliant Sebastian Bach, giving it all he's got live on Times Square here. Our friend David Hasselhoff has also taken on the role in New York, too. Take a look at this amazing run of commercials (no, really, do):  The show will run from May 16 to 21 and tickets are on sale now. I might remind you of this at a later time, just so I can run the picture again. And the clips.