page_title: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1887 play)
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1887 play) / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Movie poster for American film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920).
context_page_description: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a four-act play written by Thomas Russell Sullivan in collaboration with the actor Richard Mansfield. It is an adaptation of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, an 1886 novella by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. The story focuses on the respected London doctor Henry Jekyll and his involvement with Edward Hyde, a loathsome criminal. After Hyde murders the father of Jekyll's fiancée, Jekyll's friends discover that he and Jekyll are the same person; Jekyll has developed a potion that allows him to transform himself into Hyde and back again. When he runs out of the potion, he is trapped as Hyde and commits suicide before he can be arrested.
  After reading the novella, Mansfield was intrigued by the opportunity to play a dual role. He secured the right to adapt the story for the stage in the United States and the United Kingdom, and asked Sullivan to write the adaptation. The play debuted in Boston in May 1887, and a revised version opened on Broadway in September of that year. Critics acclaimed Mansfield's performance as the dual character. The play was popular in New York and on tour, and Mansfield was invited to bring it to London.
context_section_description: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was a milestone in the careers of Sullivan and Mansfield. Sullivan left his banking job to become a full-time writer. He wrote three more plays (none successful), several novels, and a two-volume collection of short stories, many of which have Gothic elements. Sullivan attempted one more stage collaboration with Mansfield, a drama about the Roman emperor Nero, but they became estranged after its failure. For the actor, playing Jekyll and Hyde helped establish his reputation for dramatic roles; he had been known primarily for comedies. Mansfield continued to struggle financially (in part because of his elaborate, expensive productions) before he achieved financial stability in the mid-1890s with a string of successful tours and new productions.
caption: A 1920 film adaptation starring John Barrymore was derived from the play.
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