Bonnie & Clyde -- 1st Preview Today — Page 10

Something that's exciting to me about this show is that it could result in exciting breakthroughs for a few of the people involved, maybe some awards too. Some may be hoping for a train wreck but I'm hoping for a celebration or two. I'm so looking forward to seeing the show in December.

Anyone see it tonight? Frank tweeted that there would be some changes starting Saturday night.

is that so bad

Agreed. I;ve have "You Love Who You Love" on repeat the last few days.

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^Same here.

Add me to the list. I really like this show! I didn't expect much for obvious (WILDHORN) reasons, but it's pretty damn great. Love the score. Jordan and Osnes are SO good in this.

I echo the Hobson opinions. He's miscast, imo. He's maybe a little too attractive and slick, and so I didn't feel much sympathy for his plight. He just didn't seem as hopelessly in love with Bonnie as he keeps telling us he is, so his song seems unnecessary and tacked on. They need someone a lot more vulnerable and heartbreaking to make that role work.

One other thing. Laura looks so beautiful in the wig on the poster and in the commercial. Then in the show, she has this cheap, flattened out wig in a horrible orangey-red color. She's so damn pretty, but that wig in the show makes her look odd and a little old. Maybe they're trying to make her look more like the real Bonnie shown in the projections, but why? None of the characters look like the real people in the projections. And that waitress uniform... she spends a lot of time in that, but it's sleeveless, (very strange and inaccurate to the period, imo). It just hangs on her like that cheap wig, and it does not flatter her AT ALL.

But if those are the only things I can pick apart about the show, that's pretty good. I loved it. I'd really like to see a smaller show like this become a big thing.

Updated On: 11/13/11 at 12:22 PM

^^Good point about expanding the Ted role, Butterfly. That would give him a struggle to work with.

It could very well be a planned absence.

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Also Laura's been doing the role for 3 years, it's not like this is her 10th performance...

I hope someone lights a fire under Louis Hobson... I love his song he just sings it so unenthusiastically.

Does anyone know how old Young Bonnie is supposed to be at the beginning of the show? Do they ever say the year? It seems like they have Young Bonnie starting out as maybe 12 or 13, singing about wanting to be the next Clara Bow and even referencing her as "The It Girl," but Bonnie was born in 1910 so if she's 12 or 13 that scene would have to be taking place in either 1922 or 1923 and Clara Bow was only starting out at that time winning her first photo competition in 1921.

Most biographies I’ve found credit the movie "It" for catapulting Clara Bow to stardom and that was released in 1927. That would have made Bonnie 17 which is quite a bit older than they seem to be portraying the Young Bonnie at the beginning of the show. Kelsey Fowler is actually 15, but even if Young Bonnie is supposed to be 15 at the begining of the show that's still two years before the release of "It" and Clara becoming known as "The It Girl."

Regarding the Clara Bow timeline... Maybe the years don't match up exactly, but dramatization gets a little license, and we're only talking a few years off. Who better than the "It" Girl for Bonnie to idolize?

Which reminds me of one the best parts of the show I neglected to mention... the book. I never heard of Ivan Menchell, but the guy certainly knows how to write dialogue and construct drama. It's one of the best books of a musical I've seen in quite a while.

Praise also belongs to Jeff Calhoun for extremely simple but extremely clever direction. The staging of "God's Arms are Always Open", for instance, turns a standard gospel-style tune into an exciting account of Clyde's escalating career in crime. The song may not further the plot, but the staging of it does, in a big, and exciting, way.

Oh, and Melissa Van Der Schyff... WHAT a performance. When she first appears, you are expecting a stock comic relief portrayal. That is not what she delivers. Her range, from the hilarious one-liners to her shell-shocked moments at the end, is devastating. And that voice of hers just blew me away. There is nothing like watching a performance that suprises you at every turn. It's easy to imagine a lesser talent taking this role down the wrong road. I think this the kind of performance, and role, that the Featured Actress in a Musical Tony slot was created for.

Updated On: 11/13/11 at 01:48 PM

Regarding how old Young Bonnie is supposed to be, I believe there was a scene in the middle of the first song where she was arguing with her mother and mentioned that she was 15.

"I want to see Melissa Van Der Schyff in EVERYTHING from now on."

Right, Jordan? I can't stop imagining her as Miss Adelaide.