Bonnie and Clyde

Please Note: My thoughts below are based on a preview performance. Cuts, additions, and other changes are subject to be made in this production anytime before its opening night on December 1.

I caught a preview performance of Bonnie and Clydetoday, the first new musical to hit Broadway this season (excluding Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which was initially aimed as an entry for last season).

Bonnie and Clyde is the latest Broadway mounting for composer Frank Wildhorn, who's musical Wonderland flopped earlier this spring at the Marquis Theatre. Perhaps because Wildhorn is notorious for writing pieces that aren't well received by the critics (and sometimes with audiences), I had never seen one of his musicals before. Well, I didn't emerge from today's performance a big Wildhorn fan, but will admit I don't understand all of the bashing he has received within the theatre community.

I actually thought a number of the songs in the show were quite good. Wildhorn's music definitely out shined Don Black's lyrics; perhaps he has found his strength in the rockabilly/bluesy music that so frequently popped up in Bonnie and Clyde. Some of the best songs were the act one finale, "This World Will Remember Us," Bonnie's show-stopping ballad "Dyin' Ain't So Bad," the Bonnie/Blanche duet "You Love Who You Love," and Clyde's raucous "Raise a Little Hell".

The performances were solid for a piece of musical theatre without being anything too outstanding. Laura Osnes fared the best as Bonnie Parker; she is a beautiful young performer with a very strong voice and I'm glad that she has found continued success on Broadway following her debut in the 2007 revival of Grease. I was less impressed with Jeremy Jordan's Clyde Barrow. This could be because I'm not his biggest fan (I didn't care for his Tony when I revisited West Side Story last year), but I just didn't feel the spark from him that I got from Osnes. I wasn't as impressed with his voice as others have been, and I didn't find him exciting when he was onstage.

I liked the staging of the show; the wood plank set was appropriate for this material, and I really liked the way the projections were used throughout the performance. I was initially taken aback by the rather anti-climatic ending, but, upon further thinking, was actually impressed by the simple use of real-life headlilnes (and a memory from the show's opening scene) to illustrate Bonnie and Clyde's death. It was actually a very beautiful way to end the piece.

Bonnie and Clyde wasn't the best musical I've seen, but it certainly wasn't the worst either. I would like to see it run through the season because I think it deserves a chance.