Theatre Trip: Bonnie & Clyde

BONNIE & CLYDE

Garrick Theatre

Date: 12 May 2023 (Friday), 7:30pm

Seats: Grand Circle, C 3-4

(Seen with Jess!)

Notes: This was a show I went to see purely because it was closing and I was curious. It helped that I knew that Jeremy Jordan had played the lead in the original broadway cast and of course I've heard of Bonnie & Clyde but all I really knew was that they were criminals in the 1920s and they died in a shootout. There was so much more to it!

Jess and I met in the city for this show. She ended up delayed so rather than eating our customary McDonalds together, I ate in the city and she ate on the train but we still had our usual meal! We met outside the theatre around 7:15, plenty of time for the usual bits. I was actually really pleased because I couldn't get the app to load our tickets, so I went to the box office and asked - and I got given PAPER TICKETS! I missed paper tickets and will probably do this all the time going forwards so I can get them for my journals.We booked seats for £25, and it may be the best £25 we've ever spent on seats, even though with our seats labelled 'restricted view' we did lose the front right corner of the stage (but there wasn't really much happening there to miss, which was good). VERY good value!

This show started the way we all know Bonnie & Clyde end - driving their car and being shot with more than a hundred bullets, which of course killed them. Then you go back to the beginning with Bonnie, a waitress who wants to hit the big time as a movie star, and Clyde, who is a petty criminal who enjoys playing renegade. They meet and it's love (or lust) at first sight and they soon become inseparable. They follow each other as things unravel and they become famous, just like Bonnie wanted, but not for the reasons she wanted. She nearly leaves but then realises she loves him, and besides, it's too late. Throw in Clyde's brother and his wife and things get very crazy! I liked the story - it was wild and romantic and dramatic too which fit them as characters really well. I also thought the staging and choreography was really great and fit the style so well - a bit country, a bit 20s, it felt similar musically to Chicago which was fun.

A couple of the more minor characters I thought were played really well. I liked Ted, the sweet boy who is in love with Bonnie (played by Cleve September). His singing was so lovely! And the Preacher (Dom Hartley-Harris) totally blew me away - I really loved the song Made in America that came at the beginning of Act Two!

But there were 3 stand out actors in this show that I adored. Jodie Steele played Blanche, Clyde's sister-in-law. She sang so beautifully but more than that, she is a true triple threat! Absolutely gorgeous singing, great acting (she was actually very funny, unexpectedly in a show like this), and she also danced with the ensemble for the church numbers which she also did really well. I have seen her in Heather before but it seems that she is so much more than that. Incredible. Bonnie (Francis Mayli McCann) was beautiful, to look at, and she sung like a bird. I really enjoyed how fiery she was with Clyde, she clearly showed that Bonnie had such an equal relationship with Clyde. And Clyde. Jorden Luke Gage. I have seen him in &Juliet, where he played Romeo, and he had also been in Heathers at one point (but I had missed him). He was phenomenal. a gorgeous voice and just the right amount of intense and scary. His scene in the jail? Blew me away.

If this comes back, I'm seeing it again - I've been listening to the soundtrack and am annoyed I waited until a week before it closed to see it!