Bonnie & Clyde

Having already enjoyed several productions in the comfort and ambience of Stone’s new Crown Wharf Theatre since its opening in 2024, I was greatly looking forward to joining the audience for the musical ‘Bonnie & Clyde’, especially as it was the theatrical launch of Aspire Productions making their first exciting step onto the stage. An offshoot of Musical Theatre Stafford, Aspire is a newly formed company dedicated to encouraging and providing opportunities for the talent of young performers in the Stafford and Stone area - and what an impact they made on a packed house in this debut production.

‘Bonnie & Clyde’ is a relatively new musical which world premiered in La Jolla, California in 2009 before making its Broadway debut in 2011. Subsequent international productions followed in Australia, Japan and Korea before the show opened in London’s West End in 2022. Frank Wildhorn’s non-traditional score cleverly combines blues, gospel and rockability music with lyrics by the multi-award-winning Don Black and a book by Ivan Menchell.

At the height of the Great Depression in the 1930’s, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow went from two small-town nobodies in West Texas to America's most renowned folk heroes and Texas law enforcement's worst nightmares. Fearless, shameless and alluring, their electrifying story of love, adventure and crime captured the attention of an entire country. And our attention was certainly captured last evening at the Crown Wharf Theatre with an outstanding production of the musical.

As I took my seat there was time to relax and admire the open stage set that had been very cleverly designed and constructed in the style of a slatted wooden shack typical of those in a 1930’s small town in the American deep south. There were two large opening doors in the centre of the main wall together with a small window on the left-hand side and exits left and right between the two outer walls which also provided an area to project the various images that had been cleverly created to enhance the onstage action.

One would have been forgiven for thinking that the theatre had been burgled with all the chairs lying on their sides around the stage area, but as the gentle musical ‘Prologue’ began and the house lights faded, everything made sense as a very disciplined company walked onto the stage from both sides, picking up and positioning their individual chairs for the opening scene. Apart from two large wooden crates and Bonnie & Clyde’s motor car, the chairs were the only large props used to skilfully create totally believable settings throughout the entire performance.

In the opening number. ‘Picture Show’, we first met both Young Bonnie and Young Clyde confidently played with great charm and panache by Ameila McMahon and Jude Holmes as they dreamed of their futures, she as a movie star and he as a criminal like his folk heroes, Billy The Kid and Al Capone. Amelia’s role in shadowing Bonnie during ‘How ‘Bout A Dance?’ was particularly well performed.

As for Bonnie & Clyde themselves, their characters were brought brilliantly to life by Ella Firth and Jamie Gardner, displaying an exceptional onstage chemistry for each other in this classic good girl falling for a bad boy true life story. As Bonnie Parker and her aspirations to become famous as an actor, singer and poet, Ella was simply outstanding – charming and compelling, with wonderful facial expressions and vocally superb. Her second half tear-jerking rendition of ’Dyin’ Ain’t So Bad’ can’t have left a dry eye in the house and her beautifully sung duet, ‘You Love Who You Love’, with Blanche was another showstopper, delivered with heartfelt emotion from them both.

Jamie too gave an excellent portrayal of Clyde Barrow in this very challenging and demanding role as the charming, smooth-talking and hot-headed young criminal who clearly believed he was above the law and entitled to commit armed robberies and get away with them. Despite the ups and downs of his relationship with Bonnie, his love for her was unquestionable and shone through at every stage of a hugely convincing performance in which he also demonstrated a very capable acting and vocal ability.

Clyde’s brother and sister-in-law, Buck and Blanche Barrow, portrayed by Sam Rodi and Lydia Brough-Chesters, were perfectly paired and both gave excellent performances. Having pulled off a daring prison break with Clyde, all Blanche wanted was for Buck to serve his time and get back into a calm and loving home life again. Whilst Buck couldn’t make his mind up what to do, Blanche, the god-fearing voice of reason, and her three comical hairdressing salon customers, Eleanor (Amelia Evans), Stella (Nuala McDonnald) and Trish (Issy Draycott) had no doubt about it and pulled no punches in the hilarious ‘You’re Goin’ Back To Jail’. In complete contrast, Blanche’s gentle and beautifully delivered ‘That’s What You Call A Dream’ was another highlight of the evening.

There were other excellent performances from the Sheriff, Nuala McDonald, and especially her deputy, Ted Hinton, played by Lee Foetu-Foster, who having carried a torch for Bonnie since their school days together was desperate to save her from the malicious clutches and influence of Clyde which he voiced in a very meaningful duet with his adversary  – ‘You Can Do Better Than Him’.

As the Town Preacher, Eryn Moore, gave a very moving rendition of ‘God’s Arms Are Always Open’ with Blanche and the town’s congregation and opened Act Two with a very fast and energetic showstopper, ‘Made In America’, which featured some breathtaking choreography from the ensemble.

Other notable performances came from Claudia Robb as Bonnie’s long-suffering mother, and from Laura Marsden and Mat Giles as Clyde and Buck’s greatly anguished and dispirited mother and father, Cumie and Henry, who together with Emma had become clearly torn between the love of their offsprings and the shame of the criminals they had turned out to be.

We had enjoyed a truly wonderful evening of high-quality entertainment made even more special by the fact that the majority of the company were under eighteen. Along with the principal characters, the ensemble, in various supporting roles, performed with great skill, energy and enthusiasm with very well-rehearsed vocals and harmonies. The sets, the costumes and, in particular, the lighting and sound were also all of a very high theatrical standard. I also loved the clever use of projected images of significant dates, press cuttings, jail bars and even window frames onto the two outer flats.

There were so many dedicated members of the new Aspire Productions Company responsible for bringing this classic tale of love, adventure and crime to the stage in such an exceptional production and it would be almost impossible to name all of them. This said and, in particular, I must congratulate Sam Simkin for his outstanding skills and vision in directing this theatrical epic to such a high standard and to Matt Davis and his band for the very high quality of musical accompaniment. The use of more traditional instruments, including two reeds and a violin, clearly added a very realistic 1930’s slant to the musical numbers.

I should also note that the roles of Young Bonnie and Young Clyde were played at other alternate performances by Imogen Patrick and Bailey Brennard.

Thank you for inviting me to your latest production and for your warm welcome. I look forward to making the relatively short trip down the road from home to see you all again in the future.

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