The cast of MSU’s Department of Theatre rehearses an energetic dinner scene during their dress rehearsal of Chemical Imbalance: A Jekyll and Hyde Play, as Chamang Yang, playing Henry Jekyll, attempts to use Savannah Jordan’s character, Calliope, for a potion in East Lansing, Mich., on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025.
Michigan State University Department of Theatre’s production of Chemical Imbalance: A Jekyll and Hyde Play featured potions, playful banter and a hat that "is intended to suggest a flaming rose bush doused by a pitcher of cream," said Lady Throckmortonshire.
Directed by Brad Willcuts, associate professor of acting, choreography and dance, "Chemical Imbalance" is a farce of the original The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, "with characters you’ve never seen before," he said.
"They take the story, use the basis of 19th-century Victorian England, and turn it into a dark comedy," Willcuts said.
The show is performed in the MSU auditorium's Studio 60 and invites audience members into a story of one-liners and extravagant movement that caused laughs, gasps and all things in between.
Acting and international relations senior Anastasia Breen said her expectations for the show were completely flipped from the beginning to intermission.
"It’s so funny and so unlikely," Breen said. "The student work is incredible."
The show began with an introduction to Dr. Jekyll and his family – his mother, Euphronia, and his sister, Ambrosia – with their father absent. Alongside the family is a horde of other characters including: housekeepers Ivy and Plodgett, Jekyll’s cousin Xavier, Rosamunda Dewthistle, Lady Throckmortonshire and more.
Arts and humanities senior Katelyn Kraemer said her favorite part of the show was scenes with the twins, Penelope and Calliope, both played by Savannah Jordan. Kraemer also mentioned the comedy fights as a standout.
"I didn’t have expectations," Kraemer said. "I was excited to see the show and was left laughing way more than I thought I would."
Acting senior Grace Duffy already knew some of what they show had in store from helping her roommate, who played Xavier, rehearse lines. Duffy said the chase scenes, the fight choreography and the actors' physicality were her favorite parts.
"I pushed (the student performers) really hard to work on the sharpness of their comedy and physicality," Willcuts said. "Even a blink, a head turn, and a fight scene are all finely choreographed."
"Chemical Imbalance" is a part of the MSU Theatre Department’s Storefront series, an acting-focused program meant to replicate theater practices that are on a shoestring budget.
The Storefront Series began "many years ago," Willcuts said. It has been back in rotation for three to four years.
For "Chemical Imbalance" in particular, "It’s been sitting on the shelf for five years," Willcuts said. "We were going to do it in 2020, but then COVID happened."
Willcuts said the Storefront Series puts students in the driver's seat, "I really wanted to treat it like a company making a product, rather than a creative team director saying, 'Follow me.'"
"At the heart of it, it’s the company as a unit working collaboratively to highlight our strengths," Willcuts said.
The props and costumes for the show were pulled from home and thrift stores. "We made the potions with food coloring, and I made the table at home," Willcuts said.
"Chemical Imbalance" ended with bodies on the floor and characters processing the events of the past 75 minutes, with actors and actresses coming out for bows and drinking an imaginary potion to run at the audience in Hyde-fashion.
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