Ethan: I'm doing the role of Dr. Henry Jekyll & Mr. Edward Hyde.

A double role?

Ethan: A double role, exactly.

Isn't that difficult?

Ethan: Very difficult! You need two different voices, two different personalities, yeah, actually you almost need two different bodies but it is great fun.

How long have you been rehearsing?

Ethan: We've had rehearshals since more or less early November 1998, but I've already been preparing myself for this role since last summer. Because this is the most difficult role a musical performer can take at the moment.

Yes a double role, so I guess you have to be on stage all the time, aren't you?

Ethan: Yeah, I'm onstage quite ofen. During Act One I have a break of 7 minutes, but after that I hardly ever get off.

The plot is based on a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson and is set in the Victorian age. That sounds quite boring in the first place so what kind of elements did you add to make it interesting for the audience?

Ethan: Well, ever since the very first theatrical production of Jekyll & Hyde, women have been added to the story. So, it gets some romantic, erotic moments. Our show is something like a romantic, erotic psycho thriller. Actually there are really a lot of elements in it which appear in thrillers as well. It's very mysterious and violent. Not too good for little children to see, I don't want to scare whole audiences but for very young kids it's really too heavy. Because we deal with the seperation of our good and bad sides and of our dark lust from our ethic moral ideals.

So here we are confronted with the double role again. You are a Doctor...

Ethan: Yes, Dr. Henry Jekyll a very idealistic man who is very driven. His father is suffering of madness and about to die from it, so Jekyll is trying to save his father and the whole world by his experiments in which he tries to eliminate our evil nature.

And then he creates this formula?

Ethan: Yes, in his depression caused by his colleages who won't give him any support, he does the experiments on himself and it is getting a little bit out of control.

And he turns into the dark, bad Mr. Hyde.

Ethan: Exactly, all the bad sides which are hidden inside of us, that's Mr. Hyde.

And is this fun?

Ethan: (with big smile and bright eyes) Ohhhhhhh yessss! I have to admit that it's a damn difficult job, but it's fun to do it. How much fun, I'll find out at the opening night! But of course already the rehearsals are wonderful, because you can figure out for yourself "What is inside of me and what of it fits with the role, and am I able to sing and act the role?" It's a lot of fun but it's also a lot of hard work.

In Bremen you built your own theatre for the show.

Ethan: Oh yes, and it's amazing.

How will you perfom the transformation from Jekyll to Hyde? Will you disappear from stage for a while or is there some kind of trick?

Ethan: No, everything happens onstage right in front of the audience. It all comes from changing the behaviour, body and hair.

But Jekyll & Hyde have also differences in their voices. How can this work out? While there be a difference?

Ethan: Yes, to show the difference of Jekyll & Hyde as good as possible. They also have different kinds of music, in music terms we say the have a different timbre. Jekyll has a more soft, more lyrical way of singing while Hyde is more powerful and more dramatic and pretty heavy.

How long is your singing warm up and what kind of vocal exercises to you prefer?

Ethan: I train my voice the whole day through and I'm doing a lot of different things. Anything that comes to my mind at the moment out of a repertoire of about 200 voice exercises. For this role it is more necessary than for any other.

Are you nervous before going onstage or are you relaxed and cool?

Ethan: Not cool but not hyper nervous. I'll try to turn being nervous into being concentrated so that it comes out as positive powerful energy. So I'm not shivering and trembling.

Which movie part would be a dream role for you?

Ethan: I don't think that anybody would cast me for the typical heroic roles so I think some evil or even some comic part are things I could do and I guess which I could do quite well maybe.

You also have to perform on Saturdays. Do you go out to parties afterwards or do you have to rest and keep the voice healthy?

Ethan: That depends on the role. Once I had to do roles which weren't very difficult for me to sing, and in those times I was quite a party guy. But with the role of Jekyll & Hyde I have to get rest for my voice most of the time and unfortunately I need it on Saturdays and Sundays as well.

How do you care for your voice? Do you drink milk with honey or do you chew gummibears?

Ethan: None of it. Honestly, I think drinking milk is awful, but for me usual water is the best, or some green tea or herb tea and after that maybe some beer.

Do you have a split personality yourself?

Ethan: Oh yes, sure I do. I guess we all have a split personality in some way. But it's interesting do to the role of a split personality, because then you have to recognize your own personality and you get the chance to think really bad things as well.

You are American, but you speak perfect German. How is that possible?

Ethan: During my university education in America, I started to learn German on the recommendation of my former voice teacher. He thought that I could eventually go to Europe someday to make career in the opera business, and though it turned out quite differently, it was very, very good. I started at 18 and even though I didn't went to start an operatic career, I spent 4 and a half years as a student at the Musikhochschule in Vienna and I had to deal with slang and even Viennese. And then over the years at German theatres and while skipping from London to Vienna during the last 4 - 5 years, my German turned out to be like this.

Where, in the German speaking areas, have you already performed?

Ethan: In Vienna I did 3 big shows and 3 big roles. The first one was the Phantom of the Opera at the Theater an der Wien and at the Raimund Theater in the late 80's. Then I've done the world premiere of Elisabeth as Luigi Lucheni, the narrator and assasin of Sissy. And 2 and a half years ago I went back to Vienna again to do Die Schöne und das Biest, as the Beast.

Bremen isn't the best place for a musical, what will you do do make the town attractive for tourists and audiences?

Ethan: First of all we'll make Bremen attractive as a musical town. I think we can do this, because the theatre is phenomenal and our show is the bomb. We have room for about 1500 people, a good size for a theatre, not too big but big enough to be worth the effort. And Bremen is simply a facinating town. I'm suprised and amazed by it. I came here some years ago while I was touring and we stayed here for two weeks and I was a little bit amazed by it even then. I'm a little bit in love with Bremen. It's a wonderful little town, you feel the river run at the Weser which isn't as big as the Rhine, of course, but very nice and you are close to the sea. For me this is very important.

The show is already running on Broadway.

Ethan: The show Jekyll & Hyde has been running on Broadway for two years now and it's very sucessful, but we didn't copy it 1:1. We were allowed and even asked to create our very own production of it.