Review: Bonnie and Clyde at the Palace Theatre, Manchester

If you can base a musical on a murderous barber, one of America’s founding fathers, a collection of poems about cats and even the sinking of the Titanic, why not make one about two of the most notorious killers in US history?

American composer Frank Wildhorn has form in this area, having already turned Gothic horror masterpieces like Jekyll and Hyde and Dracula into unlikely stage shows - the latter with the legendary British lyricist Don Black, with whom he reteamed to retell the story of iconic outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow who achieved folk hero status during the Great Depression.

Despite the fact it won the Best New Musical award at the What’s On Stage Awards last year, the show has actually been around since 2009 and made its Broadway debut in 2011, since when it has been seen around the world and enjoyed a successful West End run before embarking on this, its first UK tour.

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Most people know the story and crucially how it ends - namely in a hail of bullets, more than a hundred of them, which tore through Bonnie and Clyde at the wheel of the car which had taken them on their killing spree across the country.

Smartly, director Nick Winston and writer Ivan Menchell decide to open the show with the grisly fate of the two star-crossed lovers before taking us back to the start of their story, before they have even met, with Bonnie dreaming of becoming a silent movie superstar like Clara Bow while Clyde hero worships Billy The Kid.

Both far-fetched ambitions are borne of the poverty-stricken circumstances in which they are raised and when they finally team up and fall in love, they quickly realise the only chance they have to make any of their dreams come true is through armed robbery - a frustration echoed by vast swaths of the population which is why they were often regarded as heroes.

So it is a violent tale set against a grim backdrop and it is, therefore, to the credit of everyone involved in this piece of work that the tone struck throughout is nothing less than perfect. allowing black humour to pervade many dramatic scenes while the musical numbers range from comical to aspirational to defiant to heartbreaking.

Absolutely key to that success is the casting of the two lead roles - Katie Tonkinson as Bonnie and Alex James-Hatton as Clyde might well be powered by the National Grid such is the sizzling relationship which sparks into life from the moment they first meet.

Their chemistry together and their charisma as individual performers makes them consistently engaging and you cannot help yourself rooting for them even as their body count rises and their legacy becomes ever more bloody.

But much of one’s appreciation of this production is also down to the sheer force of personality and sense of humanity brought to the saga by the wonderful Catherine Tyldesley who completely shakes off her Coronation Street persona as Blanche Barrow, wife of Clyde’s devoted brother Buck (a highly effective Sam Ferriday), and the voice of reason much of the time until her love for her husband finally overcomes her otherwise finely tuned view of what is right and wrong.

There is further poignant support provided by Jasmine Beel as Bonnie’s long-suffering mother and especially by Daniel Reed-Walters as police officer Ted Hinton who desperately tries to keep Bonnie on the straight and narrow because he is hopelessly in love with her himself.

Often the problem with a musical you are seeing for the first time is being able to fully appreciate songs with which you are completely unfamiliar but when you have two master craftsman like Wildhorn and Black in charge, it is one very quickly solved because, quite simply, there is not one weak number in the entire score.

It helps that they are delivered with such power and skill by a cast strong in voice as well as in conveying character and most of the highlights come when two or more team up such as Bonnie and Clyde’s opening Picture Show, the comedy of Clyde and Buck’s When I Drive and the different perspectives brought to the song You Can Do Better Than Him by Ted and Clyde.

But for me the standout moment of the entire evening comes near the end of the first half when Tyldesley and Tonkinson raise the hairs on your neck and bring tears to your eyes with the extraordinary performance of the immense ballad You Love Who You Love.

Another inspired choice by writer and director comes with the climax of the show which ends with tenderness and beauty rather than death and destruction with the tragic figure of Ted centre stage. It is one final moment of mastery in a production which refuses to release its grip on your attention from start to finish.

Bonnie and Clyde can be seen at the Palace Theatre in Manchester until Saturday, May 11

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