BONNIE & CLYDE Unveils New Broadway Art — Page 2

I dunno, normally it is hard to center a story on two criminals, but Clyde and Bonnie are different. The movie with Dunaway and Beatty did pretty well, didn't it?

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The ending is horrible and ends the show on such a dull note.

I believe that was changed in Florida.

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Laura Osnes is very very good in this. Definitely a star-making performance. Jeremy Jordan is also very good, and I think Melissa as Blanche is another great performance.

The score (generally) lacks the ballads that Wildhorn is known for, which saddens me (who doesn't love a good ballad?), but the score makes up for it with soaring duets. Not a big fan of the song "I'm Ready," I believe it's called.

The set has only been improved from the original La Jolla run, and stays in place. They are very serious about cutting the unnecessary and making sure the best version gets to Broadway. Ivan & Jeff Calhoun have done a great job!

So Clyde is a full blown, able to get it up heterosexual in this version, re-writing history?
Which is fine, but less interesting.

I don't like most of the solos-ballads in this one either. I actually kind of miss "Short Order World," but I'm probably alone there.

The set is the same, with some additions?

songanddanceman2, they did make a lot of changes since La Jolla, but most of them weren't for the better. There's a whole new opening with a young Bonnie and Clyde which is far more complicated and completely unnecessary.

The book scene where Bonnie and Clyde first meet has been substantially rewritten and all they really did was suck all the charm out of what was probably my favorite scene in the La Jolla production. That was the scene that sort of endeared the audience to Clyde and showed an adorable side to him that sort of made you understand why Bonnie might fall in love with him despite everything else. That's gone now and the show is sh*t without it.

"Long Arm of the Law" is gone and the sheriff character is almost completely gone as well which eliminates the chase element and excitement from the first act by not showing the sheriff hot on their trail. That, combined with the removal of the act one finale cliffhanger makes the whole first act seem like exposition now which could prove deadly for the Broadway production.

I deeply miss "This Never Happened Before." They've basically replaced that song with "How 'Bout a Dance" which isn't nearly as romantic and it's really strange to me since Jeff Calhoun has commented on the fact that the romance and sex appeal was what drew him to the piece in the first place.

There are some changes that I like. "Raise a Little Hell" is a major improvement over "These are What You Call Guns," but over all what they've done is muddy the entire first act and made the rest of the show very slow paced and episodic with new songs and solos that are basically unnecessary.

I know I'm not a producer or book writer, but my advice would be for them to mostly return to the La Jolla book and score and only incorporate "Raise a Little Hell" and maybe write a new song for the sheriff or just have him be a non-singing character. The rest of the changes are just silly to me. They took something that was close to perfect and butchered it. And why? What were they trying to fix with these changes? Whatever it was it didn't work.

Updated On: 9/1/11 at 12:25 AM

It's pretty well documented that B&C were not avid lovers, like the art work suggests.

Yeah, I've always known that they weren't lovers. But I know people who only kinda know who Bonnie & Clyde are assume they were. Without having seen the show I can't comment on how well it's done. But I'm not against the idea of making their relationship more romantic. I think it adds some different dynamics that could draw the audience in emotionally.

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Updated On: 9/1/11 at 01:02 AM

W D Jones, one of the two people combined to make up the C W Moss (Michael J. Pollard, aka Hugo Peabody) character in the movie says it was well known that Clyde was a homosexual in and out of prison.

Not that I think it really matters either way in the context of the show - given that they're more characters than representative of the actual people - but WD Jones actually said the opposite about Clyde: "I've heard stories since that Clyde was homosexual, or, as they say in the pen, a 'punk,' but they ain't true. Maybe it was Clyde's quiet, polite manner and his slight build that fooled folks."

I guess as with most prison snitches, WD's story has changed several times. I found chellie's quote as well as contridicting stories. For every denial of Clyde's sexuality you can find the opposite. But, as stated, it's more romantic to think of B&C as lovers and killers.

Can someone who has seen the musical tell us if this is addressed in the show?

Updated On: 9/1/11 at 07:12 AM

The show's Facebook page features this variant as their profile picture:

Updated On: 9/1/11 at 09:25 AM

That sound s abit better seeing them dead at the begining. It just seemd like the tried to make you fall in love with them so hard that you would not want to see harm come to them so instead they ending it with them singing a ballad to each other. I'm sorry but they killed a lot of people and we are shown that throughout the play with plenty of blood, i don't see why it should be different for the 2 criminals of the story (god it sounds like i just want to see people get shot eeek)

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There's a whole panel discussion on youtube with the creative team (sans Wildhorn) discussing the differences between Asolo and La Jolla in detail - there are also a few clips from the show inserted in the conversations.