Not finished raising a little hell, Bonnie and Clyde is back once again with a live concert version filmed at the Royal Theatre Drury Lane in January 2022. Directed by Nick Winston with music by Frank Wildhorn, book by Ivan Menchell and lyrics by Don Black, this live concert version of Bonnie and Clyde is a simply brilliant example and celebration – not only of this musical and the genre – but for the accessibility and love for theater.
Set against the backdrop against the Great Depression, this musical recounts the tale of some of America’s greatest outlaws Bonnie Parker (Frances Mayli McCann) and Clyde Barrow (Jeremy Jordan), the story of their meeting, romance and the Barrow Gang’s series of robberies that catapulted them into Robin Hood-like roles and fascination by the American public. Nick Winston’s direction adds a gravity and edginess to the movement onstage, highlighting parallels and creating contrasting moments throughout the show that speak volumes to comment on the nature of a relationship or the overarching situation and narrative.
Normally we’d expect a distance or just a general lack of immediacy that occurs when watching something on a screen as opposed to in a theater, but the editing and camera of this staged concert manages to circumvent this. Using every tool in the toolbox- the combination of the camera angles, the staging and lighting design – these powerful visually stunning moments are created, and these thematic layers create and draw parallels between characters, giving us a better understanding and appreciation of the message at the heart of the show as well as the roles of the characters themselves. The camera work and editing of this filmed version is absolutely phenomenal, it adds so much to the overall performance, our ability to appreciate the show and generally does more than just direct our gaze. It highlights and brings to the forefront references to the historical context of the musical: the Great Depression, the extreme poverty and economic hardship faced by Americans, the perception how the banks forced people off of their land and the treatment of the Dust Bowl migrants, which not only creates parallels to the present day, but gives greater insight into motivations Bonnie and Clyde’s motivations as characters, and what drove them until they achieved their folk hero status. It lends gravity to these moments instead of just quickly passing over them. encourages us to see them more as just their legendary folk hero status and their motivations. In many shows, the historical context has a tendency to fade into the background, but in using close-ups to emphasize these moments, it hits home that this story doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
The technical aspects of the musical – Zoe Spurr’s lighting and Tom Marshall’s sound design don’t overpower the action onstage and are used with a light touch; to either direct our gaze, fill in the blanks, and work in tandem with the camera angles and editing to really emphasize certain moments or visuals in the show. The thing about Bonnie and Clyde is that the story and their reputation precedes them to the point that we as an audience hope and believe that their roles and status as folk heroes is enough to escape reality and fate that we’re told from the beginning – and consistently throughout the show – that they meet. In that we become like Clyde a little, hoping and deluding ourselves into believing that like Jesse James, they die at a ripe old age, that their status as these folk heroes is enough to help them escape from the reality of the ending. And in this way, Marshall takes the sound design a step further by turning it into a narrative tool to add a finality to that it’s difficult to rationalize away. Philip Whitcomb’s set design is very minimalist and the different levels provide opportunities for incredibly powerful staging, especially considering the metaphor that is created by a curtain of a bullet-riddled American flag. The set design manages to create moments of intimacy and domesticity in scenes where it comes for it, but still provides enough space for the cast to revel in these big, highly anticipated moments in songs. It’s a lot to ask from a set, but it strikes the right balance in providing a feeling of space but not so much that we feel so far removed to the action onstage, especially during the quieter domestic moments. In this way, we literally become the fly on the wall creating essentially the definition of the 4th wall break, and we feel a lot closer to the action onstage than we might on any other occasion.
It’s such an amazing show and it’s just fun to watch the cast’s performance, in that there’s an intensity and commitment to the moment, character and song that creates such a buy-in on our part into the narrative that it breaks whatever distance a screen would normally create. Because of the care taken with the editing, the cast’s microexpressions become more visible, adding an additional layer of understanding and lets us to track their character arcs and thought process at any given moment, and the fact that we are able to be clued in more to these developments let us buy into the reality of the story a lot more. We aren’t just watching a staged concert, but a story and a doomed narrative however we might wish it otherwise.
McCann is an incredible performer, perfectly cast in the role of Bonnie, almost bringing a mercuriality to the character. There’s a witty and joyful energy to her performance and her ability to convey a rapid succession of thoughts with just the subtlest change in expression or tone is truly enjoyable to watch. This kind of control over and depth in every aspect of her performance makes Bonnie real to us. McCann possesses an absolute powerhouse of a voice, reaching new heights of expression and musicality with every song, and creates these astounding show stopping moments that literally creates some kind of chills. It’s just mesmerizing to see her in the role of Bonnie, as she finds the balance between the rose tinted glasse and dreams the character possesses, as well as a fundamental understanding of the gravity and reality that she exists in, and this intermingling of the typically diametrically opposed forces both gives us hope by engaging in the domestic nature and levity of moments before reminding us of the stakes. Time stops when McCann and Jordan sing, whether together or separately, their talent is immeasurable. The pair possess an easy chemistry, an almost gravitational pull towards each other. They meet each other’s strengths in performance and vocal ability, and there’s a camaraderie that fleshes out the dynamic between the pair, making us believe in the epic nature of the relationship. Throughout this performance, it feels like we’re watching Jeremy Jordan slip into a familiar coat, his performance is completely effortless, as is demonstrated in the ease and charm with which he performs the role, which is truly remarkable to experience. It’s not a matter of believability in his performance, but the fact that he acts with such sincerity to the point where Clyde becomes a real person rather than merely a character. Jordan becomes Clyde; there’s such a degree of reality in his reactions and moments that we can see Clyde’s mind whirring in every situation and song. We can clearly map the ‘hardening’ of Clyde’s character, but even whilst the process and arc is taking shape, Jordan’s ability to show both the cracks in this image, the mischievousness, despair, sense of injustice and levity, a stark difference between Act 1 and Act 2. It’s like seeing behind the legend, the folk hero, and Jordan thrives in the nuances of this character. And it’s the 3 dimensional nature and skill of Jordan’s portrayal that not only makes Clyde a sympathetic character but transcends the 4th wall to make us consider and listen to how we are seeing this play out at this moment in time.
Liam Tamme’s performance as Ted is really interesting. It’s not that he’s a sympathetic character in any way and comes off as really just a guy, butTamme gives Ted a quality that is quite fascinating in a way that is really difficult to pinpoint, and we are again able to suspend our disbelief that he is merely a character in this show whose role is to be a parallel and narrative foil to Clyde. It’s the degree of believability and sincerity in his performance that makes us do a double take, especially in You Can Do Better Than Him where his performance is truly stunning.
At no point does the Bonnie and Clyde filmed concert feel like we are watching a staged concert; even though we are reminded that this is in fact such a thing, overall, between the camera work and editing, it feels more like a movie than anything else. It’s just incredibly slick and cinematic, with everything from the strength of the cast to the camerawork paying homage to the magic of theater with the magic of film. The Bonnie and Clyde filmed concert has raised the bar for live version releases.
By Katerina Partolina Schwartz
Photo Credit: Bonnie & Clyde The Musical: Filmed Live
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