Put Your Hands In The Air For ‘Bonnie & Clyde’
They’re young, they’re in love, and they’re in possession of stolen firearms. The Kingston Meistersingers are stealing hearts this season with Bonnie & Clyde, a fast-paced musical based on the story of real-life crime duo Bonnie Parker (Rachel Savlov) and Clyde Barrow (Rowan Engen).
Parker and Barrow’s infamous exploits and violent deaths in the 1930s sparked enduring public interest, inspiring numerous adaptations in the nearly hundred years since their heyday. This Broadway retelling, directed by Rachael McDonald and presented at the new Théâtre Le Sésame, features music by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Don Black, and book by Ivan Menchell.
The show opens in the moment of Bonnie and Clyde’s death—strobe lights and loud gunshots—with the 1934 headline “CLYDE BARROW, BONNIE PARKER SLAIN” projected above the stage. Then, as if waking from a nightmare, the audience is transported back to 1920 to watch the story unfold from the beginning. In Rowena, Texas, 10-year-old Bonnie (Frances Ritsma) dreams of growing up to become a movie star, while in Ellis County, 11-year-old Clyde (Owen Benson) fantasizes about becoming a famous criminal like Billy the Kid or Al Capone. After teen years plagued by crushing poverty and Clyde’s first stint in jail, the pair meet as young adults in West Dallas and quickly fall in rapturous, comically-long-makeout-session love.
Savlov and Engen bring to life a pair of young, ill-fated dreamers with charm, zeal, and impressive vocal performances. Engen’s tone is smooth and appealing, with some knock-your-socks-off tenor harmonies when he sings duets. With a perpetual twinkle of mischief in her eye, Savlov sings in the bright, belty style of 2000s musical theatre, which later gives way to some gorgeous, heady softness in her solo number, “Dyin’ Ain’t So Bad”.
With an ensemble of over 30 performers, the stage is almost bursting at the seams, but the effect is lively and keeps the audience feeling immersed in the world of the show. Patrick Large and Erin Clair are memorable as Buck and Blanche Barrow, Clyde’s brother and sister-in-law who find themselves embroiled in Clyde’s life of crime. The tensions in the Barrow family allow the show to explore different moral and emotional angles—Blanche, in particular, keeps scenes dynamic with her outspoken perspectives and humorous delivery.
The songs are fairly typical but undeniably catchy 21st-century musical theatre fare dressed up in the sounds of blues, rockabilly, and gospel music. “God’s Arms Are Always Open” flips between a loud, gospel-inflected number and a montage of Clyde’s audacious crime spree, while “You Can Do Better Than Him” and “You Love Who You Love” are satisfyingly cheesy as back-to-back pining duets. Standout singers include Jeremy Leo Curtis as Ted Hinton, Bonnie’s childhood friend and hapless nice-guy suitor, and Syd Chinnick as Trish, a vivacious customer at Blanche’s hair salon.
Bonnie & Clyde is more or less in step with pop culture’s tendency to romanticize the pair, though it tends toward sympathy over glamour—emphasizing the desperate backdrop of poverty in the Great Depression, the false promises of the American Dream, and the trauma of incarceration. The characters are presented as fame-hungry kids who are in over their heads, and while that may or may not be true of the historical Parker and Barrow, it makes it easy to cheer for them, even as the clock is ticking on their capture and gruesome execution.
It should be impossible to forget how the story ends, but the show keeps spirits high, leading to gut-punching moments when the buzz of excitement fades and reminders of the inevitable come creeping in. Bonnie & Clyde keeps its audience captive with song and energetic antics, even as the story takes us barrelling toward its tragic conclusion.
Kingston Meistersingers’ ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ plays at Théâtre Le Sésame through December 1, 2024. Tickets and more information can be found here.
