Bonnie & Clyde -- 1st Preview Today- Page 6

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/5/11 at 9:13pm

^I agree. It's one of my favorite songs. Especially, the part where Clyde joins in. If they're gonna cut something they need to cut "When I Drive."

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 11/5/11 at 10:59pm

I chose to not compare it to the film because the Author's Note in your Playbill clearly states they were not using the movie as source material.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 11/5/11 at 11:07pm

Gee, Kyle-- mine is a typo, one that is caused by my computer, as the R key doesn't always work. (Sometimes I get no "r", other times I get multiple rrrrrr.) What's your excuse? '

[massofmen]

Posted: 11/5/11 at 11:15pm

broadwaydevil,
i agree with you wholeheartedly about :"only way to know is if you go". I am just pointing out valuing something based on expectations.

Shrek wasn't that bad but because many people had high expectations of it going in (movie being so good) that it couldn't live up to those standards. I think most theater people go to a wildhorn show now thinking "one more show that won't make it ..can it be as bad as wonderland..etc"

i don't think anyone is going to this show thinking "DAMN THIS IS GONNA BE GREAT!" if they did i am sure they would come out thinking "it was fine" but again..i haven't seen it yet

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 11/5/11 at 11:20pm

iluvtheatertrash-
They do admit they aren't using the movie as source material, but they need to realize that if people are familiar with the pair it will be because of the movie. Do you know the movie? I haven't seen it in a few years, but I remember it being very sexy, exciting and violent. It would be unrealistic to think the public won't go into the show expecting something similar to the excitement of the movie, whether they have based this show on that material or not.

I liked that the author's note had to tell us it was NOT TRUE Clyde was bisexual, homosexual or impotent. A friend told me he read an interesting biography that came out a few years ago that made a very persuasive case for Clyde being at least bisexual. I think his character what be a lot more interesting if they would have explored this rather than dismissing it as untrue out of hand.

Did anyone else see the NYMF Bonnie and Clyde from a few years ago that had a book by Hunter Foster? I really liked the music to that version and thought the book was stronger, minus the dreadful portrayal of J. Edgar Hoover. The characters of Buck and Blanche were more interesting and integrated into the plot better. There was also a long segment about how either Bonnie or Clyde (can't remember) went down to Mexico. Anyone B&C experts know how true that may have been?

[KChenowethfan]

Posted: 11/5/11 at 11:28pm

What time did the evening show get out? I REALLY need to catch an 11:05 train next Saturday after the show.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 11/5/11 at 11:31pm

There is conflicting evidence regarding Clyde being homosexual or bisexual. The impotent thing is untrue and was replaced for homosexuality (I can't remember if Warren Beatty was reluctant to play a homosexual or if the movie's creative team was behind it).

Most historians on the subject that I've read don't think Clyde was bisexual. His sister said something like "If Clyde was homosexual, why did he spend so much time running around with that girl?" IIRC, W.D. Jones is the source for the homosexual claims, and he's also said that Clyde was not homosexual. He's not really a reliable source IMO.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 11/5/11 at 11:39pm

SporkGoddess- Thanks for the info. Whether it's true or not I think it would make a more interesting plotline/point of view for a musical than what is presented now. It would definitely create an intriguing three dimensional character out of Clyde.

Even in this version Bonnie is much more interested in going to Hollywood and becoming Clara Bow than she is interested in Clyde, sexually or otherwise. I think exploring the bisexual/homosexual element would give the show the edge it needs.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 12:30am

Chenoweth - last night I walked out of the theatre at 10:37.

[broadwaybaby086]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 1:11am

FWIW, tonight I got rush at about 7:40 and was given a front row center seat.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 1:31am

Did you like the show broadwaybaby?

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 1:02am

From Ellis Amburn's Bio of Beatty:
"Like many criminals, Clyde Barrow had blossomed into a practicing bisexual while serving time in prison"
Given Jordan's (I mean Barrows) stature and looks, he would have been prime in prison and it gives the B&C love story more depth.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 2:05am

In my opinion I don't think it's fair to the bisexual community to label someone as such just because they have homosexual experiences in prison when the option for heterosexual intercourse is not available. That’s not the proper definition of bisexual and it’s offensive these days to suggest that it is. If it could ever be proven that Clyde Barrow engaged in activities with both sexes outside of prison then I think that would be a different matter.

[Idiot]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 2:34am

On the long list of 'communities' I might worry about offending, bisexuals are way down the list.

Let's face it -- they won't stay mad for too long.

[TBFL]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 8:23am

I like the 12 track, 2011 demo recording with Jordan and Osnes, and hope that its still open when i get to NYC early next year.

His best score in a long time

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 8:35am

After I little reading the bisexual claims are not from prison sex, but rather from him sleeping with other gang members. How many gang members were there? I read somewhere there was a stream of editions to the gang (not seen in the musical). The formation of the Barrow Gang and how it functioned would have been more interesting to explore than the drawn out act one.

Also does anyone know how much of Bonnie's poetry survived? It seems a no brainer to set some of that to music. Why didn't they?

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 9:26am

Again, though, the claims that Clyde slept with other male gang members have been disputed and the evidence is contradictory.

http://bonnieandclydehistory.blogspot.com/2009/08/b-sorted-rumors-and-innuendos-exposed.html I think this post does a pretty good job of disputing it.

Updated On: 11/6/11 at 09:26 AM

[PopAria]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 9:47am

It's not fair to compare the movie with the Broadway musical. They're two separate ideas.

Bonnie&Clyde were so famous even Beyonce and JayZ made a video / song about them, I don't think this is based on the movie either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLhWmTe8kso&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I think a lot of young people will remember this before the movie.

[PopAria]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 9:48am

Sorry posted twice. iPhone gave me an error the first time.
Updated On: 11/6/11 at 09:48 AM

[ReggieonBway]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 10:08am

"I like the 12 track, 2011 demo recording with Jordan and Osnes, and hope that its still open when i get to NYC early next year."

There's a new demo recording? Got a link?

[PopAria]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 10:13am

Speaking of a new demo, does anyone have one with "Picture Show" on it? It's been stuck in my head since seeing it.

[TBFL]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 10:41am

1. This World Will Remember Us
2. How 'Bout a Dance?
3. God's Arms Are Always Open
4. You Love Who You Love
5. You're Goin' Back to Jail
6. You Can Do Better Than Him
7. When I Drive
8. That's What You Call a Dream
9. What Was Good Enough For You
10. Made In America
11. Bonnie
12. Dyin' Ain't So Bad

[StageManager2]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 10:47am

That Beatty bio is sh!t. The bisexual claims are false, in or out of prison. The police created this myth in order to discredit him. Yes, he was assaulted while at Eastham prison by a larger man, but Clyde got his revenge when he teamed up with a lifer and killed the assaulter.

Several untruths were told about them during their two-year career. One story related by J. Edgar Hoover has Bonnie driving the car, while Clyde slept in the passenger seat. She stops a traffic cop to ask for direction, he gives them to her, tips his hat, then she pulls out a sawed-off shotgun and blows his head off. She and Clyde laugh and speed off. Needless to say, this never happened, but such stories helped to turn public opinion against them. Incidentally, this same scenario was used in the movie NATURAL BORN KILLERS, when Mickey & Mallory stop a rookie cop for directions and then Mallory shoots him in cold blood.

Whizzer, off the top of my head, besides Buck and Blanche, other members were Ralph Fults (an early member who was captured with Bonnie in an early robbery), Raymond Hamilton (Clyde's one-time best friend and on-and-off member; he was rescued from Eastham by them), W.D. Jones (the youngest member at 18 and childhood friend of the Barrows who also idolized Clyde), and Henry Methvin (unknown to the gang when B & C raided Eastham; he escaped with them amid the chaos and became a full-time member).

As for their fates, Fults gave up a career in crime and lived to an old age. He later related his involvement in the Barrow gang to several biographers. Hamilton and Clyde may have been best friends, but they were both hot-temepered and fought like cats and dogs. This caused Hamilton to depart several times. The final time he was apprehended and was executed in the electric chair. Jones was with them for two years, but he left the couple after Buck's death and Blanche's capture. When he was arrested shortly thereafter, he turned against B & C. He lived to see the Beatty/Dunaway film (in which the character of "C.W. Moss" was a composite of him and Methvin), but was killed by a jealous husband when Jones had an affair with his estranged wife. Methvin ran with the couple for 4 months until his father betrayed them to the cops. Though he received leniency, he was later killed by a train when he was tied to the tracks. Many believe it was a vengeful death for the betrayal of B & C.

Re Bonnie's potery, her most famous are "The Story of Suicide Sal" (written in jail after she thought Clyde had jilted her when she and fults were arrested; the story is about a woman who gives up everything for her con-man, who later leaves her to get captured) and "End of the Road" (AKA "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde," written just a month before their deaths and contains the prophetic last stanza:

Someday they'll go down together
And they'll bury them side by side.
To few it'll be grief,
To the law a relief,
But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 11:11am

Well, minus the "bury them side by side" part. Emma Parker wouldn't let them, heh.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 11:23am

Speaking of a new demo, does anyone have one with "Picture Show" on it? It's been stuck in my head since seeing it.

The 2008 demo has "Clara Bow/Tom Mix" which is an earlier version of "Picture Show" with different lyrics. It also has "This Never Happened Before" which in my opinion was the best song in the show before it got cut.
Updated On: 11/6/11 at 11:23 AM