A farm-boy from Telico. A waitress from Rowena. Gun-sling, song-singing, they’ll make you feel alive.
But only if you’ve got your tickets to see the at Just Off Broadway’s Bonnie & Clyde.
‘Cause ain’t nuthin’ rhyme with ‘Clyde & Bonnie!’
Serving as the Baltimore area premiere of the historical-gangster musical, Bonnie & Clyde offers a wicked alternative to the dozen or so production of Sweeney Todd happening in and around the area this autumn season. Directed by Jason Crawford with Musical Direction by Patty DeLisle and Choreography/Intimacy Coaching by Kelly Carlson, this slick-sliding musical is a rarity for the books. With Music by Frank Wildhorn, Lyrics by Don Black, and Book by Ivan Menchell, you get a glimpse into a fictionalized history of America’s popular gangster duo: Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow.
The musical itself is solid. And the production has a lot of clever features, solid talent, and good intentions. You miss out on some of the more nuanced spoken moments or solo-sung moments because microphones popping off and firing away at inconvenient moments. (Technical Director Mike Mathis must have forgotten to tell the microphones that it’s only meant to be the guns that go pop in this musical.) Having the live orchestra (lead by Musical Director Patty DeLisle on keys, with Darwin Ray on reed1, Vincent Ray on reed2, Jim Stewart on guitar, Bill Collier on bass, Rachel Daudelin on fiddle, and Chip Traub on drums/percussion) situated at the very back of the auditorium really does help with the sound balance for this performance and it is always preferable to have a live pit for musical theatre. DeLisle keeps the pit in line, providing quality sound, though there are definitely moments when scenic-shifts occur and vamping should also be occurring to help ease the awkwardness of some of the lengthier transitions.
Overall the production’s aesthetic is sending mixed messages. The set— conceived and designed by Theresa Bonvegna— has rustic charm and simplicity dripping all through it. The upright crate-boards and wooden-slat-flats create the illusion of deceptive minimalism whilst conjuring up images of dustbowl farm life, The Great Depression, and a time deep in America’s past. It also allows for ease of scenic transition, even if the run-crew doesn’t always move things along expediently. When the iconic car comes rolling through the sliding wooden doors (not unlike a barn at the back of the stage) both in that powerful image at the beginning and every time the automobile is featured thereafter, it’s quite the impressive feat. The costumes of the show, however, is where the mixed-confusion comes into play. Credited only as ‘the cast’ it becomes clear quite quickly that some members of the company have a better understanding of the time period than others. It creates a lack of uniformity and really is quite distracting when various members of the ensemble are moving around throughout the performance.
There are other distracting factors— little things that catch the eye, especially as the microphones are insistent on having a shoot-out with the guns of the show. While the real-life Clyde Barrow had tattoos…he does not have the plethora of modern visible ones featured on the actor. And as the actor spends a good amount of time with bare arms showing, it looks really out of place seeing the very modern tattoos being flashed around the stage. Having functional car lights on the automobile is amazing. Having them angled directly out to blind the audience whenever the car is wheeled on stage not so much. And there’s one projection (Jason Crawford and Andrew Vida do a fantastic job of interlacing real newspaper headlines and actual photographs of the titular couple all the rest of the production)— the blood-spraying silhouette murder that just feels hokey and out of place compared to all the other very realistic projections being used throughout the performance.
The ensemble (Catherine Angelos, Cory Bauer, Ryder Bordes, Mike DeNicolis, Leon Gray, Zoey Makowieki, Mike Mathis, Austin Prochaska, Chloe Scully, Gail Shapira, Cailey Smith,) pulls their voices together well enough; they blend and they balance (best they can considering the mics) and it’s a decent enough experience for the bigger ensemble numbers like “Gods Arms Are Always Open.” Bonnie & Clyde isn’t really a ‘dancing’ show per say, so there isn’t a lot of places where Choreographer Kelly Carlson gets to showcase her work. But during “Made In America”, at the top of the second Act, you do get a little bit of movement to keep your eye on in that number.
The five focal characters are superb performers. Patrick Jay Golden, a JOB staple, wears the mantle of jealous lawman Ted Hinton. His deep, smooth vocals are well-suited for the role and he eases in and out of musical numbers with a slippery angst that leaves you feeling questionably undecided about just where his intentions and loyalties lie. You get a real simple of Golden’s capabilities during both “You Can Do Better Than Him” and its reprise as well as the reprise of “Raise a Little Hell.”
The Barrow Gang— the four fabulous featured fatales in this production will really knock your socks off with their performance capabilities. The titular two are, of course, stellar, but you get impressive performances from Blache Barrow (Jillian Paige) and Marvin “Buck” Barrow (Chris Thomas) as well. Thomas, who bares a striking resemblance to real-life Al Capone, is a diamond in the rough just waiting to burst out onto the stage. Given that he’s a board member for JOB, and his raw talent readily put on display in this show, one might hope to see him featured in more future productions. With a rootin’ tootin’ fussy-good nature, there’s something lively like a loose cannon and a live wire that Thomas brings to the character of Buck and it’s just delightful to watch. The bristly chemistry between his character and that of his wife Blanche feels raw and real. It’s bubbly and fun but also caustic and bombastic. And you get a healthy dose of that chemistry in song format during “You’re Going Back to Jail”, which mostly features Paige’s Blanche and the Beauty Shop gals preach-singing at Thomas’ Buck. You also glean a keen sense of fraternal camaraderie between Thomas’ Buck and brother Clyde Barrow, particularly when they’re singing “When I Drive.”
Now as for Miss Jillian Paige who is just saucy, sassy, and living her best Truvy-Dolly-Parton-come-1934 life in the role of Blanche Barrow, you won’t find anyone like her anywhere else on the stage. Finding the balance between the matter-of-fact nature and her goodly-Godly-Christian-ways, Paige keeps the character believable, rather than letting her spiral up into a stereotype or caricature of a pecking-hen-style God-thumping wife. She gets the most hilarious asides in the whole show, constantly looking up towards the heavens saying things like “…that wasn’t a judgement…merely an observation…” and she says it with the utmost sincerity that you can’t help but laugh. Her vocal radiance shines during the second act in her solo “That’s What You Call a Dream” as much as her sassy, feisty side shines during the first act when she’s singing “You’re Going Back to Jail.” The sniping, snappy nature with which she pleasantly attacks Bonnie is also hilarious to experience.
Lizzie Detar fills out the role of ‘ravishing redhead’ to perfection as she wears Bonnie Parker like a second skin. Truly a ravishing radiance right through her final moments, Detar is a singing sensation with enough chutzpah to put her in league with the big gangster boys. (No wonder it’s ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ and not the other way around!) Right from the moment where she twirls into existence as her grown-up self (a meet-cute slide moment with Young Bonnie, played with vigor by Catherine Angelos, during “Picture Show”) through to her final car-ride with Clyde, Detar is dazzling and you won’t be able to tear your eyes and ears away from her. Plying that Boardwalk Empire style of seduction to her singing voice, she slips right into “How Bout’ a Dance?” and just melts the audience with the pure, perfect intonation and cool charismatic song style that oozes from her lips as she sings. Fiery and fierce but equal parts balanced with sincerity and a touch of naivete, Lizzie Detar is a shining star just waiting to get her name up in lights.
Detar plays opposite Gage Wright in this gangster-love-history-musical and the pair are both inseparable and unstoppable on stage. Even when he’s giving her the worst of it, she gives back twice as much and you find that they are well-matched equals in this performance. And their racy chemistry is nothing short of a fast-burning conflagration that sparks to life with an enormous kaboom, bursting out before it even has a chance to properly simmer and smolder. This world will certainly remember the sound Wright puts forth when he cranks his voice into gear on numbers like “This World Will Remember Me” and “Raise a Little Hell.” The emotional fortitude that Wright brings to the forefront of the performance is astonishing and makes the character accessible to those in the audience, beyond just “a cool gangster from history.” Wright makes him human. Whether he’s mouthing off at various persons of the law, getting cheeky with Bonnie, or losing his temper entirely over whatever situation he’s now found himself in, Wright has the perfect handle on all these explosive and becalmed moments, switching mercurially from one to the next with an ease that mimics the tides of the ocean.
No barroom brawl could stand a chance, and it’ll be gone before you even realize
That you’ve only got three more chances to experience JOB’s Bonnie & Clyde. (Cause ain’t nothin’ rhyme with Clyde & Bonnie!)
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes with one intermission
Bonnie & Clyde plays through October 22nd 2023 with Just Off Broadway at Epiphany Lutheran Church— 4301 Raspe Avenue in Baltimore, MD. Tickets can be purchased at the door or in advance online.
