Tuesday, December 6, 2011

With Stars Of Bonnie & Clyde On Bway

We're live blogging from Hurley's just off Times Square where we are awaiting the arrival of the director and some of the stars of the new Broadway musical Bonnie & Clyde which has just opened at the Schoenfeld Theater.
I'll have my complete review of Bonnie & Clyde tomorrow but tonight I will report on the comments of the stars and others associated with this show --
their observations and experiences as this show was brought to Broadway.
Let me just begin by saying that if you are expecting something like the landmark 1967 film of these two folk legends, you can forget about that. This is no mere musical adaptation of the film -- nothing like that. This is a completely new interpretation of Bonnie & Clyde and a completely new story.
In fact, the musical puts the film to rest in the very first scene -- the very first thing you see on stage when the curtain goes up.
Yes, I suppose if you're of a certain age it's hard not to think of the film and it's hard not to conjure up images of Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway . But But I assure you Jeremy Jordan and Laura Osnes will expel those images from your mind faster than you can imagine.
And, if you're too young to remember the movie (and that's probably most of you now) then none of this will come into play at all.
Oh, wow -- the director and some of the stars and now here with us.
The team behind Bonnie & Clyde is first-rate and includes Frank Wildhorn who did the music for Jekyll & Hyde, The Civil War and The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Wildhorn has written some beautiful music in previous shows but many people say that this is the best music he's ever written.
The director of the show Jeff Calhoun (who was mentored by the great Tommy Tune) is talking and he says he thinks of Bonnie & Clyde as a play with music -- not a big, splashy musical but a story that unfolds scene by scene with music.
Calhoun says that one of the thoughts behind the show is that poverty made Clyde a criminal but jail made him a murderer. He stresses that Bonnie & Clyde has Ben a "five year labor of love." He says it's been heavily researched.
Calhoun just told us that "we believe this is the most accurate telling of the actual story of Bonnie & Clyde."

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