Arthur Penn’s 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde,” starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, carefully wrapped history’s most famous crime couple in a package of sex and glamor.
Hunter Foster and Rick Crom’s new screwball musical comedy, “Clyde ’n Bonnie: A Folktale,” takes the opposite approach. It frames the partners' infamous tale as a historical re-enactment presented by a group of amateur thespians in a small Texas town. For 37 years, wisecracking town diva Martha and her nitwit players have celebrated the anniversary of Bonnie and Clyde’s bloody ambush as a folk pageant.
Now running at Lawrenceville’s Aurora Theatre, the musical is a delightful and original work that gleefully mocks theatrical conventions and depicts both cops and robbers as incompetent screwballs. One of the sharpest musical comedies I’ve seen since “Avenue Q” and “Urinetown” (both Foster and Crom appeared in the latter), “Clyde ’n Bonnie” is certain to be a runaway hit for Aurora. In fact, I predict the silly and subversive satire, which debuted at the 2008 New York Musical Theatre Festival and is getting its first professional production here, will eventually top America’s Most Wanted list (as in: shows theaters most want to produce).
Lonny Price, a director with impressive Broadway credentials, delivers an impeccably polished, handsomely designed production. Phil Male has created a beautiful barn of a set, and Joanna Schmink's costumes fit the era of Jean Harlow and Clara Bow (Bonnie’s idol), and support the idea that the crime queen was also a fashion influence.
The superb Karen Howell leads the tomfoolery as the saucy queen bee Martha, who is always ready with a stinging comment for her young, insecure ensemble members. (Greg Bosworth’s goofus character is a frequent target.) Foster equips J. Edgar Hoover (the brilliant Bart Hansard) with a steady supply of double entendres; Hansard delivers them in deadpan fashion, making the sexually frustrated FBI chief appear to be unaware of the irony.
J.C. Long and Laura Floyd are quite good in the leads. Both are strong singers. But the play doesn’t depict them as insatiable lovers. That’s the domain of Bryant Smith and Caitlin Smith, who play Buck and Blanche Barrow to great comic effect. Blanche’s reverse conversion from straight-shooter to gunslinger is a hoot.
You can hear influences of ragtime, Tin Pan Alley and Kander and Ebb in Crom’s score. His lyrics are fun and energetic, and he even manages to rhyme “dentures” with “adventures.” A couple of quibbles: The second half of the show is not as strong or fully formed as the first; it may need a song to bridge the last couple of segments and buttress the finale. The scene with Bonnie’s mother provides an opportunity for a heartbreaking solo for Bonnie, “No Goin’ Back,” but it seems to come from out of nowhere. Because this is the story of Bonnie and Clyde, it would make good dramatic sense if their relationship was more nuanced.
These are minor quibbles about a musical that is very near perfect and poised for a splendid future. Simply put, “Clyde ’n Bonnie” is one of the most promising and important Atlanta-birthed shows in recent memory. It would be a crime to miss it.
Theater review
“Clyde ’n Bonnie: A Folktale”
Grade: A
8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. 10 a.m. April 4 (no 8 p.m. show April 4). Through April 8. $25-$35. Aurora Theatre, 128 East Pike St., Lawrenceville. 678-226-6222, auroratheatre.com
Bottom line: A dead-on delight.
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