Where to start?
Just saw this and I loved it! Sincerely loved it, and i don't LOVE much. Based on former critiques, I think it's gotten a lot tighter. When I saw it, the audience leapt to their feet at curtain call.
I liked the backstory with the younger Clyde & Bonnie (the young Bonnie looks like a cute version of a white Rihanna), and I didn't feel like Act One was that slow. It was like great foreplay that led up to some intense ass...shooting, blood, and mayhem.
Jeremy Jordan is one the SEXIEST people I've ever seen on a stage. That man oozes charisma & is a shoo-in for a Tony nom. IMO he's a gorgeous blend of a young Harry Connick meets Daniel Sunjata. Just sexy as hell. He's extremely energetic and gives a fully invested performance in great voice.
Osnes on the other hand is a beautiful young actress, (if just 5 cheeseburgers shy of looking like a fully developed woman), but has a long way to go on the acting side. Her voice is pretty and her acting got the job done, but she nowhere near possesses the charm and energy of Jordan. I felt like she wasn't edgy enough to honestly portray a chic who would run off with a thug. I actually thought her Nellie Forbush was edgier and had more personality. She'll be really great one day when she lets go a little more onstage like Jordan.
Melissa was wonderful and had amazing depth to her character-Tony nom for sure.
I guess I'm one of the few on here who loved the preacher because his vocal style, and tepid personality seemed very authentic to his character and the time period. His voice is amazing and his character was the complete antithesis of the violence of Clyde & Bonnie (inside joke) so I found his underacting, if you will, very appropriate.
Hobson wasn't good. Great voice, but yeah, not great. Maybe if he was even hotter than Jordan that would have created better conflict **SPOILER** for Bonnie to be torn, or for the audience to think she was crazy for not choosing the hotter guy with an actual job. But with Hobson in that role, it created no real conflict for Bonnie cuz why would she choose the pudgy dud?
Side note, the actor playing Clyde & Buck's father mesmerized me. He barely said anything but is a perfect example of terrific physical casting with his "gentle giant" physicality and classic facial structure. On the other hand, Bonnie's mom was laughable at best.
As far as WIldhorn's score, it didn't seem consistent to me. There were really great songs like "This World Will Remember Us", "You're Going Back To Jail", "When I Drive" seemed very period appropriate while "Dyin Ain't So Bad", "You Love Who You Love"-great stand alone song btw, seemed like contemporary pop. That did take me out of the show a bit. But I liked so many other things, and WIldhorn's had such a tough year that I gave him a pass.
One thing that's highly annoying is all of the people on here comparing the show to actual historic events and the movie version. This is "Wildhorn/Menchell's Bonnie and Clyde", and more importantly ART. (puns abound) Artistic license should be a given and people should have an open mind to accept what's being presented and not what they expect the show to be.
overall, i think it's great. I'm going out on an early limb & saying this will get a best musical nom.
"Don't f*** a baby. I'll get rid of your AIDS. If you f*** this frog."