Yahoo News Review: Bonnie & Clyde at The Palace Theatre Manchester
Based on the true story of outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, who became iconic during the era of the Great Depression, Nick Winston's production of Bonnie and Clyde The Musical promises a tale of deviance and devotion, filled with electrifying action. But what will the Manchester audience reckon?
The show kicks off with the capturing and killing of the two infamous gangsters, wanted for a string of murders and robberies, then takes us back in time to see where it all went wrong.
After meeting the infamous pair, we are then introduced to Clyde's sister-in-law, Blanche, who is styling hair in her salon when her just escaped from prison husband Buck bursts in, to the loud disapproval of her God-fearing customers.
Former TV's Coronation Street actress Catherine Tyldesley, as Blanche, has that jaded, Southern American twang to a tee but is, paradoxically, a good girl type, desperately, and ultimately fruitlessly, trying to get her rogue man back on the straight and narrow.
She plays the role with the perfect mix of sassiness and sentimentality and showcases some beautiful vocals too. It's hard to believe such a polished performance marks her musical debut.
The salon girls deliver a spirited rendition of You're Going Back To Jail, but otherwise, the songs feel a little samey in the first half. There's just not all that much to distinguish one melody from another.
That stripped back quality works well in the second half though, as it allows the emotive vocals to really shine.
There are some cracking performances too, from Blanche's Now That's What You Call A Dream, to Clyde's bath time serenade, Bonnie, and Bonnie herself's Dyin' Ain't So Bad.
Alex James-Hatton makes a cheeky chappie Clyde, with Katie Tonkinson a suitably stardom obsessed rebel.
Sam Ferriday as Clyde's brother and fellow gang member Buck, plays him entertainingly as the lovable, not-the-sharpest-knife-in-the-drawer bad boy, the felon Forrest Gump.
That said, you feel more than a bit guilty for liking these characters, given the relatively scant justification given for their crimes. Clyde does tell us that "The banks took people's homes" and we know his family are poor farmers, but what about the man he murdered in the grocery store?
A bit more background information might have eased the audience's consciences a bit, as well as adding another dimension to the romances of the two brothers and their women.
On the whole though, if you like your love stories with a wallop of waywardness and are fond of a poignant, stripped back vocal or two, you won't be disappointed.
