So How is Bonnie & Clyde Different...- Page 2

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 10/18/11 at 8:03pm

I have never liked a Wildhorn show but i have to say i enjoyed this one (the originl production). The music was good for the most part and the book was strong. I'm hoping they have not messed with the show to the point where it harms it.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 2:02pm

How is B and C different from past Wildhorn shows??

You know how in Spamalot they sang "Once in every show....The song that goes like this"?

That always reminded me of those awful Frank Wildhorn Ballads and those not so awful Andrew Lloyd Weber Ballads."

Guess what? In this show.. There are no awful Frank Wildhorn Ballads. All of the music propels the story and has
a ragtimey sound true to the tone and theme of the story.

And that is the major difference between Wildhorn's past and present.. And this is why this show will
(should) succeed

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 3:51pm

"There are no awful Wildhorn ballads"

To me, that's exactly what I thought of I DON'T KNOW THE WAY.
Sounds like a bad ripoff of a Bonnie Rait tune.
Advances the story? She loves him, yeah we get it.
Updated On: 10/22/11 at 03:51 PM

[philly03]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 4:03pm

"I Don't Know the Way" is not in the musical, never was.

"Dyin' Ain't So Bad" is the same tune, however.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 4:36pm

I disagree that all of the songs propel the story. For the La Jolla version I would have said that was true, but there are a few songs that have been added since then that seem to be there just because they're either pretty or upbeat.

[ReggieonBway]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 5:21pm

The only songs that ever got in the way of the storyline for me was the mother's song and When I Drive, and I believe both have been in there since La Jolla. Which songs do you think don't propel the storyline?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 6:02pm

^ "When I Drive" wasn't in the show in La Jolla.

Spoilers. This is all subjective and just my opinion, of course, but my list would probably include "How 'Bout a Dance," "When I Drive," "I'm Ready," and "What You Call a Dream."

"How 'Bout a Dance" was borderline in La Jolla, but now in place of "This Never Happened Before" which was the best song in the show it has even less to do with the story. At least in La Jolla it sort of served as an understandable relief of tension for the main characters prior to the onslaught of bullets. Now it's just pointless. It's shameful that we had to lose "This Never Happened Before" for this.

"When I Drive" is a fun song and provides more of a "traditional" Frank Wildhorn flavor to the score, but it's a sung version of material covered elsewhere in the book and pretty much eliminates any momentum that was being built up until that point.

"I'm Ready" I'm on the fence about. I like that they're touching more on Clyde's being beaten and rapped in prison, and showing us his breaking point, but I think the action flowed better in the final La Jolla version with "Sixteen Years" in that slot.

"What You Call a Dream" is beautiful. It's the first song I heard from the score, but as it is now it's pretty much just a solo for a secondary character that doesn't really need her own solo. It also takes the place of the "Goin' Back to Jail" reprise which, again, I think worked better in La Jolla and definitely had more to do with the progression of the plot than this solo does.

[broadway7117]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 6:55pm

The B&C wiki page seems to have an updated song list. Shows some cuts such as "I'm ready" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_%26_Clyde_%28musical%29

[jas1234]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 11:06pm

I agree with the post about the inaccuracy of the movie with respect to the real history of Bonnie and Clyde, though the movie is wonderful on its own terms. For example, I do believe it's a fiction that Clyde was actually impotent. Re the musical: I am looking forward to seeing it, because I think it has two of the hottest new talents on the Broadway scene. Laura Osnes and Jeremy Jordan-- surprised that none of the posts have mentioned him. He was sensational in "The Newsies"-- a genuine star-in-the-making.
They are going to be the sexiest and most talented pairing on Broadway this season.

[ReggieonBway]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 11:56pm

I absolutely agree. A bad Bonnie or a bad Clyde would destroy this show before it even got off the ground, but I wouldn't debate either of their casting - I honestly think that Laura in particular is going to be iconic one day.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 1:27am

The "real" story of B&C will always live in Legend, everyone at the time had an opinion about them. Warren Beatty agreed to play impotent because he didn't want to portray Clyde as Homosexual, and there are conflicting ideas about that too.
The real point is can there be an interesting musical about two country kids who become cold bloodied Killers. (The last one was SWEENEY TODD).
The leads are talented, beautiful and sexy, but can we believe they are killers?

[PopAria]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 1:01pm

I can't wait to see how the duet of "Dyin' Ain't So Bad" plays out on stage. I have to say I really love the recording of Laura doing it by herself- but I'm open to change....

My favorite song is a mix between "What Was Good Enough For You", "This World Will Remember Us" and "Dyin' Aint So Bad"...


That "When I Drive" song is really the only song I skip on my iphone when I play it... It just sounds silly to be singing about driving, lol just my opinion.

[Panerofan]

Posted: 10/29/11 at 1:09pm

Will be checking this one out...(even though it makes me disappointed that Jeremy Jordan won't be available for a Broadway run of Newsies...but, alas, they'll just have to give another wonderful young actor a shot if the transfer happens.)

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 10/29/11 at 2:04pm

Don't rule out this closing in a couple of months and Jeremy being freed up, but then again I really don't think the Newsies transfer rumor has any merit at this point.

I'm really hopeful for Bonnie & Clyde and excited to see it but Wildhorn doesn't exactly have the best track record..

[StageManager2]

Posted: 10/29/11 at 2:53pm

CurtainPulldowner, I just gotta clarify a few things in your post. Clyde was initially written as bisexual in the original screenplay. He was to have a mnage  trois with the nymphomaniac Bonnie and the C.W. Moss character, who was a composite of two members of the Barrow gang -- D.W. Jones, a childhood friend of the Barrows who idolized Clyde and was their getaway driver, and Henry Methvin, who joined the gang after Jones' departure and whose father betrayed the pair in order to get leniency for his son.

Anyway, Beatty was all up for playing the part as bisexual. I have the Ultimate Collector's Edition and in it Beatty and screenwriter Robert Benton discuss their first meeting, how Beatty showed up unexpectedly at his home and was willing to do the part without having read the script. Benton told him to read it first and then decide 'cause he wasn't willing to make changes. So Beatty took it home and called back later that day still wanting to do it.

In fact, it was Arhtur Penn who nixed the triangle aspect. He reasoned, they were already outlaws and murderers, and if they were also a threesome it would label them as "freaks" and he was afraid audiences wouldn't be able to sympathize with them. Benton reluctantly agreed and Clyde was thus changed to impotent, which was also taboo at the time.

Clyde wasn't really impotent. That was a Hollywood creation to explain Clyde's fascination with guns, the ultimate phallic symbol. In other words, shooting a gun becomes a substitute for ejaculation. Benton mentions that Bonnie and Clyde couldn't just be happy bandits together; they had to have something that kept them apart. Not the police, not the Depression, but each other. Bonnie loves sex, but the man she loves isn't able to satisfy her. So he picks up a gun and she follows, and robbing banks and shooting up people replaces sex for them.

In reality, Clyde was a hoodlum who was in trouble with the law from a very young age. He was never able to escape that lifestyle, even when he tried to go straight after being released from prison, but that was a half-hearted attempt. Bonnie joined Clyde mainly 'cause she was lovesick (her estranged husband had recently left her for good), but she was also a lonely waitress "bored crapless" as she put in her diary. They also had a normal sex life. I don't believe Clyde was gay or turned gay after his assault at Eastham prison; in fact, it only made him bitter. His family noticed a drastic change after his release. Clyde's main motivation was to get back at the law, especially Eastham, where he eventually carried out a daring prison break, releasing several prisoners and shooting a few guards. Unfortunately, one of the prisoners they freed was Methvin, who would become their undoing.

Incidentally, are either D.W. Jones or Henry Methvin mentioned in the musical?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 10/29/11 at 4:02pm

^Not that I remember. The "gang" in the musical is just Bonnie, Clyde, Buck and Blanche.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 10/29/11 at 4:27pm

Then how are Bonnie and Clyde betrayed? Who lures them to their ambush?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 10/29/11 at 4:40pm

Spoiler.

The cops figure out that Bonnie and Clyde always return home to see Emma Parker at an arranged location and time.
Updated On: 10/29/11 at 04:40 PM

[StageManager2]

Posted: 10/29/11 at 5:18pm

That's stupid. Bonnie and Clyde were shot in Louisiana. Their families were back in Dallas, nowhere near the scene of the ambush. Frank Hamer (with the aid of J. Edgar Hoover) tracked them down, but it was Methvin's father's betrayal that did them in.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 10/29/11 at 6:13pm

Thanks for clearing that up stagemanager2, I got my info from a Warren Beatty bio. There is enough humor and hearsay about this story to go around.
Clyde's homosexuality in prison has also had many theories.

[sorano916]

Posted: 10/29/11 at 6:36pm

I liked that "When I Drive" was added because it allowed Clyde & Buck to actually show a brotherly bond. It was missing in the La Jolla version, in my opinion.