some day they'll go down together, they'll bury them side by side
Bonnie & Clyde, world premiere, 11/10/09
La Jolla Playhouse Mandell Weiss Theatre
Featuring Stark Sands and Laura Osnes
Book by Ivan Menchell
Music by Frank Wildhorn
Lyrics by Don Black
Directed by Jeff Calhoun
Apparently I can subsist on music and beauty and narrative alone, for it wasn't until nearly 11 pm, after I had walked all the way home and collapsed in a chair, that I remembered that I hadn't yet eaten dinner. I feel that hollowness I used to get when I was a kid after we'd had a party at our house and everyone had gone home, that deflation of having been so intensely occupied a moment before, but now it is just me. And I am so desperately sad I can't go and see it again tomorrow night, to see it from a new angle, to take it even more to heart. I guess this is my punishment for procrastination.
And anyway I am just as desperately glad I got to see it at all. It is so good.
I became very absorbed in the storyline and notice very few technical details except at intermission and a few points in the second half, so at this point I'm really impressed by the tech (I love invisible tech). There were a few points in the first half where one of the secondary characters would be walking away from a spot and the end of their line would fade out, and at one point in the second half the middle huge sliding panel got a bit stuck and rattled some at a point in the lyrics where it was rather ironically amusing (and I'm not 100% sure that all the gunshot-flash-glass-breaking sounds were in perfect sync). But overall the tech was very smooth. I especially liked how they did the scene changes, where the stage had sort of layers of scenes and things would close out slowly to focus on a different part of the stage as the scenes shifted. Even the changes in and out of intermisson were like that -- I feel kind of sorry for the actor who had to spend all of intermission playing dead at the center of the stage, but it worked really well. I'm pretty sure Bonnie and Clyde were both individually miked -- possibly everyone was because I couldn't spot any hanging mikes anywhere, but I'm not sure what would cause the fade-out problem then -- though possibly not always with the same system? Or perhaps I just didn't get a complete enough look from all sides in any of the scenes. At one point Clyde seemed to have an earpiece, and at another point he seemed to have a thin wire running from approximately his forehead back to the nape of his neck (threaded under his hair, mostly), and into the back of his shirt. I don't know enough about modern, upscale theatre tech to be sure what their methods were. The set itself was somewhat minimalist but the kind with many moving parts, the basics done up in weathered wood slats, and it struck me as exceedingly effective. But I've always been fond of suggestions-of-space sorts of sets -- my favorite opera performance of the ones I've seen was the Boston Lyric doing La Boheme with a very minimalist set, which somehow seemed to let the voices really shine.
I also loved the costuming. It was mostly quite matter-of-fact, not too overboard, but still all consistently felt like right time period and setting. I loved Clyde's bloodstained wifebeater from the beginning and his three-piece suit toward the end, and I desperately want my own pair of Bonnie's dark red heeled mary janes and the smart black heels with a ribbon tie strap. Like the set and the tech and everything else about the production, the costuming was pitch-perfect and fully in service to the story and the performances.
The music and the acting were both all-around fantastic. I will buy this album so fast if they ever make one, and I really, really hope they do. The music was still very clearly for a musical -- occasionally it sounded like Sondheim, occasionally more like Rent, but so often it had the soul of old, gentle-rough country or soft folksy blues, and those were the moments I loved the most. I have to say, Stark Sands (Clyde) has exactly the right voice for this part. His lower notes have a lovely subtle burr to them, and the higher ones can be strong or sweet, depending on what the music calls for, but his voice never seems affected, instead being genuine and human and very much all the wide-ranging aspects of the character and the songs. Laura Osnes (Bonnie) has a more standard sort of Broadway voice, but the kind that can adapt well to different song textures, controlled and strong and quite pretty. They sang together beautifully, and had great chemistry. There was a lot of kissing in this show and every time, the passion was just there. Love is definitely the center of this version of Bonnie and Clyde. Especially their love for each other, but also the love of family. Mare Winningham's voice is fine if not really my style, but her performance as Bonnie's mother Emma is what tipped me from slowly tearing up into silently crying. I also enjoyed the performances of Chris Peluso (Buck Barrow, Clyde's brother) and Melissa van der Schyff (Blanche, Buck's wife). They both have voices that managed to be more country than Broadway, his a comfy baritone and hers a sort of June Carter Cash style, and there's something about the contrast and similarities between their story and the title characters' that heightened the impact of the story a whole lot. (I will note for the Supernatural fans reading this that Buck and Clyde occasionally reminded me of Supernatural, especially when Buck insisted to Blanche that it was his responsiblity to take care of Clyde. Family is really important in this show.) I felt sorry for Ted, in love with Bonnie and a deputy who helped hunt them down, and his actor really looked the part and sold his point of view. I was amused by how much of his music had the "that guy in musicals who's a really good, sweet guy but doesn't get the girl" sound, very Freddy in My Fair Lady. His voice is good, and has great potential, though I think it took him a little bit of singing to really get into it. But this was the first performance of the musical ever, after all. Of the other actors, Buck and Clyde's parents did an absolutely amazing job of portraying good people, beaten down by life, but still fiercely protective of their sons. The sheriff and the preacher had kickass voices, very showy and grandiose and compelling, and the supporting cast fit in to the narrative smoothly. Michael Covert (Barber/Guard/Johnson/Shopkeeper/Ensemble) really stood out to me. It's possible that's just because I thought he was super cute, but I really did think his little snippets of acting and singing were spot-on. Of course, everyone's were. All the little details in the performances! Just fantastic.
I have to admit, though, I don't think I really gave the rest of the cast their due attention, because it was very hard for me to look away from Stark Sands and Laura Osnes. And if it were only Bonnie and Clyde onstage, then I'm pretty sure I mostly watched Clyde. I swear there was charisma coming off him in waves -- charisma and, of all things, sincerity. They both had this genuine decency to them, so at odds with some of their actions (they and their gang killed not-insignificant numbers of both authorities and civilians), and I think that is exactly why Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are such iconic figures. They were outlaws, no doubt, but their romance was real, and they're human and complex and come from a time when being against a failing system was perhaps more logical than not. Their motivations strike me as very human; I am absolutely the type of person who sympathizes with having issues with the system, and I am even more the type of person who empathizes with love.
Laura Osnes as Bonnie is completely charming. I am admittedly a sucker for the good-girl/bad-boy relationship type, and Bonnie was apparently quite the good girl before she met Clyde. I guess I just like the whole idea that good girls have a lot of other desires underneath, that they're not just A students and charming-but-safe performers and sweet writers. They're more than what the orderly parts of society wants them to be. (Note to self: once I am no longer consumed by packing and annoying administrativa, I think I should add Bonnie and Clyde to the "history" section of this tv tropes entry. And possibly to some other entries as well.)
Obviously, the bad boy is more than what society's enforcers of order want him to be, too. And does this characterization of Clyde Barrow and Stark Sands' performance ever deliver on that! This script makes him sympathetic while shying away from romanticization, and manages to hit that balance just right. When he tried to send her away after he accidentally shot a guy to keep her out of the heightened danger (and she refused, of course, because she is awesome), my heart just burst in my chest. I know it's not at all functional in real life, but something about self-martyrdom for the sake of someone beloved hits me deep and true. Admittedly, I'm also a sucker for loving life more than death... and for so valuing such a life and the things in it that fear of death is no longer a factor. When it is more important to live the way you want, and with the person you want, that it just doesn't matter anymore if you die by it. There are very few things that are as compelling as that.
It doesn't hurt that the both Laura Osnes and Stark Sands are delightful to look at. Most of the cast is, really, but Laura has a classic prettiness to her that works so well for her character -- it is so easy to believe that she drew the admiring gazes of Clyde and Ted. And Stark Sands is... Well. Really very hot. Not precisely classically handsome, but that actually makes me like him all the more. It's no secret that I have a soft spot for Middle American guys -- I grew up in Minnesota, okay, and two of the people I've dated most seriously were from the Texas/Oklahoma region. I don't have much truck with facades of "nice," but I can't help being a little charmed by true, honest politeness. When Clyde says to Bonnie's mom, "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am," and then proceeds to tell her very matter-of-factly how much he loves Bonnie, despite knowing very well that she almost certainly hated him and would probably never relent, I just melted. We're back to sincerity, I guess. That could have been said in a falsely polite, ingratiating way. But it just wasn't. Instead it was... sweet. Real and sweet. Real and sweet and heartbreaking.
Er. Back to shallowness. Stark Sands is just drop-dead hot in this. Sweet, appealing, dangerous, and oh so very hot. I really can't complain about the fact that he goes from naked to dressed on stage twice. Though I would love to see this show from a completely different angle someday, I highly recommended my position of stage right, two rows back. It's very... scenic. And it draws you into the action! (ETA: Also! At several points during the show he picked Laura up and sometimes walked around with her like it was the easiest thing in the world. One of those times, he did it with one arm, like in that classic shot of the historical Bonnie and Clyde. It was impressive. And seriously hot.)
It was interesting, they only did a brief group bow at the end, and didn't come back for individual bows. I liked the ending itself, very thoughtful, with an almost suspended-in-time feel because we know that they are killed, but the last we see of them on stage, they are still kissing as the lights drop. The newspaper headline announcing their deaths is projected onto the screen (well, screen-like object) toward the back of the stage, they are kissing down right after having discussed the inevitability of their demise, and the other characters are arrayed behind them, backs to the audience, staring at the screen. Gorgeous and effective.
I had an unfortunate attack of shyness after the show. I'm not great at approaching random people in general, and with celebrity types it's even worse. I tend to have to psych myself up at least a little bit. So when I realized halfway through skirting past a couple of people hugging that one of them was Stark Sands and the other one probably his mom or someone else close to him (she was saying something about coming back tomorrow and seeing him then), and that they were saying goodbye and would be done pretty much right then, I kind of dropped the ball. He slid a sidelong glance at me as I sneaked a look at them after I was most of the way past, and of course my instinct for when I'm caught looking is to glance away and let my hair cover my face and studiously go back to whatever it was that I was doing. Which, in this case, was walking across the (fairly small) lobby and out the door. It was only after I'd made it to the sweet outdoors that I realized that that would've been the perfect moment to just turn toward him quickly and say "You were amazing," and then make my escape. It would have been so easy! There was a point where I was barely a foot away from him! But it was too late. Alas! I fail at being social.
But the show? Is amazing. I want the music, I want the songbook, I want the script, I want a video, I want photographs, I want everything about it. And I really, really, really hope it becomes hugely successful and goes on to Broadway and tours around the world so I can see it again and again and again. Because I'm probably not going to make it back to San Diego before it closes on 12/10. If you can, I highly recommend it!
Oh dear, I should not have spent so long writing this review. I have so much packing to do before Thursday morning. Eek!
La Jolla Playhouse Mandell Weiss Theatre
Featuring Stark Sands and Laura Osnes
Book by Ivan Menchell
Music by Frank Wildhorn
Lyrics by Don Black
Directed by Jeff Calhoun
Apparently I can subsist on music and beauty and narrative alone, for it wasn't until nearly 11 pm, after I had walked all the way home and collapsed in a chair, that I remembered that I hadn't yet eaten dinner. I feel that hollowness I used to get when I was a kid after we'd had a party at our house and everyone had gone home, that deflation of having been so intensely occupied a moment before, but now it is just me. And I am so desperately sad I can't go and see it again tomorrow night, to see it from a new angle, to take it even more to heart. I guess this is my punishment for procrastination.
And anyway I am just as desperately glad I got to see it at all. It is so good.
I became very absorbed in the storyline and notice very few technical details except at intermission and a few points in the second half, so at this point I'm really impressed by the tech (I love invisible tech). There were a few points in the first half where one of the secondary characters would be walking away from a spot and the end of their line would fade out, and at one point in the second half the middle huge sliding panel got a bit stuck and rattled some at a point in the lyrics where it was rather ironically amusing (and I'm not 100% sure that all the gunshot-flash-glass-breaking sounds were in perfect sync). But overall the tech was very smooth. I especially liked how they did the scene changes, where the stage had sort of layers of scenes and things would close out slowly to focus on a different part of the stage as the scenes shifted. Even the changes in and out of intermisson were like that -- I feel kind of sorry for the actor who had to spend all of intermission playing dead at the center of the stage, but it worked really well. I'm pretty sure Bonnie and Clyde were both individually miked -- possibly everyone was because I couldn't spot any hanging mikes anywhere, but I'm not sure what would cause the fade-out problem then -- though possibly not always with the same system? Or perhaps I just didn't get a complete enough look from all sides in any of the scenes. At one point Clyde seemed to have an earpiece, and at another point he seemed to have a thin wire running from approximately his forehead back to the nape of his neck (threaded under his hair, mostly), and into the back of his shirt. I don't know enough about modern, upscale theatre tech to be sure what their methods were. The set itself was somewhat minimalist but the kind with many moving parts, the basics done up in weathered wood slats, and it struck me as exceedingly effective. But I've always been fond of suggestions-of-space sorts of sets -- my favorite opera performance of the ones I've seen was the Boston Lyric doing La Boheme with a very minimalist set, which somehow seemed to let the voices really shine.
I also loved the costuming. It was mostly quite matter-of-fact, not too overboard, but still all consistently felt like right time period and setting. I loved Clyde's bloodstained wifebeater from the beginning and his three-piece suit toward the end, and I desperately want my own pair of Bonnie's dark red heeled mary janes and the smart black heels with a ribbon tie strap. Like the set and the tech and everything else about the production, the costuming was pitch-perfect and fully in service to the story and the performances.
The music and the acting were both all-around fantastic. I will buy this album so fast if they ever make one, and I really, really hope they do. The music was still very clearly for a musical -- occasionally it sounded like Sondheim, occasionally more like Rent, but so often it had the soul of old, gentle-rough country or soft folksy blues, and those were the moments I loved the most. I have to say, Stark Sands (Clyde) has exactly the right voice for this part. His lower notes have a lovely subtle burr to them, and the higher ones can be strong or sweet, depending on what the music calls for, but his voice never seems affected, instead being genuine and human and very much all the wide-ranging aspects of the character and the songs. Laura Osnes (Bonnie) has a more standard sort of Broadway voice, but the kind that can adapt well to different song textures, controlled and strong and quite pretty. They sang together beautifully, and had great chemistry. There was a lot of kissing in this show and every time, the passion was just there. Love is definitely the center of this version of Bonnie and Clyde. Especially their love for each other, but also the love of family. Mare Winningham's voice is fine if not really my style, but her performance as Bonnie's mother Emma is what tipped me from slowly tearing up into silently crying. I also enjoyed the performances of Chris Peluso (Buck Barrow, Clyde's brother) and Melissa van der Schyff (Blanche, Buck's wife). They both have voices that managed to be more country than Broadway, his a comfy baritone and hers a sort of June Carter Cash style, and there's something about the contrast and similarities between their story and the title characters' that heightened the impact of the story a whole lot. (I will note for the Supernatural fans reading this that Buck and Clyde occasionally reminded me of Supernatural, especially when Buck insisted to Blanche that it was his responsiblity to take care of Clyde. Family is really important in this show.) I felt sorry for Ted, in love with Bonnie and a deputy who helped hunt them down, and his actor really looked the part and sold his point of view. I was amused by how much of his music had the "that guy in musicals who's a really good, sweet guy but doesn't get the girl" sound, very Freddy in My Fair Lady. His voice is good, and has great potential, though I think it took him a little bit of singing to really get into it. But this was the first performance of the musical ever, after all. Of the other actors, Buck and Clyde's parents did an absolutely amazing job of portraying good people, beaten down by life, but still fiercely protective of their sons. The sheriff and the preacher had kickass voices, very showy and grandiose and compelling, and the supporting cast fit in to the narrative smoothly. Michael Covert (Barber/Guard/Johnson/Shopkeeper/Ensemble) really stood out to me. It's possible that's just because I thought he was super cute, but I really did think his little snippets of acting and singing were spot-on. Of course, everyone's were. All the little details in the performances! Just fantastic.
I have to admit, though, I don't think I really gave the rest of the cast their due attention, because it was very hard for me to look away from Stark Sands and Laura Osnes. And if it were only Bonnie and Clyde onstage, then I'm pretty sure I mostly watched Clyde. I swear there was charisma coming off him in waves -- charisma and, of all things, sincerity. They both had this genuine decency to them, so at odds with some of their actions (they and their gang killed not-insignificant numbers of both authorities and civilians), and I think that is exactly why Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are such iconic figures. They were outlaws, no doubt, but their romance was real, and they're human and complex and come from a time when being against a failing system was perhaps more logical than not. Their motivations strike me as very human; I am absolutely the type of person who sympathizes with having issues with the system, and I am even more the type of person who empathizes with love.
Laura Osnes as Bonnie is completely charming. I am admittedly a sucker for the good-girl/bad-boy relationship type, and Bonnie was apparently quite the good girl before she met Clyde. I guess I just like the whole idea that good girls have a lot of other desires underneath, that they're not just A students and charming-but-safe performers and sweet writers. They're more than what the orderly parts of society wants them to be. (Note to self: once I am no longer consumed by packing and annoying administrativa, I think I should add Bonnie and Clyde to the "history" section of this tv tropes entry. And possibly to some other entries as well.)
Obviously, the bad boy is more than what society's enforcers of order want him to be, too. And does this characterization of Clyde Barrow and Stark Sands' performance ever deliver on that! This script makes him sympathetic while shying away from romanticization, and manages to hit that balance just right. When he tried to send her away after he accidentally shot a guy to keep her out of the heightened danger (and she refused, of course, because she is awesome), my heart just burst in my chest. I know it's not at all functional in real life, but something about self-martyrdom for the sake of someone beloved hits me deep and true. Admittedly, I'm also a sucker for loving life more than death... and for so valuing such a life and the things in it that fear of death is no longer a factor. When it is more important to live the way you want, and with the person you want, that it just doesn't matter anymore if you die by it. There are very few things that are as compelling as that.
It doesn't hurt that the both Laura Osnes and Stark Sands are delightful to look at. Most of the cast is, really, but Laura has a classic prettiness to her that works so well for her character -- it is so easy to believe that she drew the admiring gazes of Clyde and Ted. And Stark Sands is... Well. Really very hot. Not precisely classically handsome, but that actually makes me like him all the more. It's no secret that I have a soft spot for Middle American guys -- I grew up in Minnesota, okay, and two of the people I've dated most seriously were from the Texas/Oklahoma region. I don't have much truck with facades of "nice," but I can't help being a little charmed by true, honest politeness. When Clyde says to Bonnie's mom, "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am," and then proceeds to tell her very matter-of-factly how much he loves Bonnie, despite knowing very well that she almost certainly hated him and would probably never relent, I just melted. We're back to sincerity, I guess. That could have been said in a falsely polite, ingratiating way. But it just wasn't. Instead it was... sweet. Real and sweet. Real and sweet and heartbreaking.
Er. Back to shallowness. Stark Sands is just drop-dead hot in this. Sweet, appealing, dangerous, and oh so very hot. I really can't complain about the fact that he goes from naked to dressed on stage twice. Though I would love to see this show from a completely different angle someday, I highly recommended my position of stage right, two rows back. It's very... scenic. And it draws you into the action! (ETA: Also! At several points during the show he picked Laura up and sometimes walked around with her like it was the easiest thing in the world. One of those times, he did it with one arm, like in that classic shot of the historical Bonnie and Clyde. It was impressive. And seriously hot.)
It was interesting, they only did a brief group bow at the end, and didn't come back for individual bows. I liked the ending itself, very thoughtful, with an almost suspended-in-time feel because we know that they are killed, but the last we see of them on stage, they are still kissing as the lights drop. The newspaper headline announcing their deaths is projected onto the screen (well, screen-like object) toward the back of the stage, they are kissing down right after having discussed the inevitability of their demise, and the other characters are arrayed behind them, backs to the audience, staring at the screen. Gorgeous and effective.
I had an unfortunate attack of shyness after the show. I'm not great at approaching random people in general, and with celebrity types it's even worse. I tend to have to psych myself up at least a little bit. So when I realized halfway through skirting past a couple of people hugging that one of them was Stark Sands and the other one probably his mom or someone else close to him (she was saying something about coming back tomorrow and seeing him then), and that they were saying goodbye and would be done pretty much right then, I kind of dropped the ball. He slid a sidelong glance at me as I sneaked a look at them after I was most of the way past, and of course my instinct for when I'm caught looking is to glance away and let my hair cover my face and studiously go back to whatever it was that I was doing. Which, in this case, was walking across the (fairly small) lobby and out the door. It was only after I'd made it to the sweet outdoors that I realized that that would've been the perfect moment to just turn toward him quickly and say "You were amazing," and then make my escape. It would have been so easy! There was a point where I was barely a foot away from him! But it was too late. Alas! I fail at being social.
But the show? Is amazing. I want the music, I want the songbook, I want the script, I want a video, I want photographs, I want everything about it. And I really, really, really hope it becomes hugely successful and goes on to Broadway and tours around the world so I can see it again and again and again. Because I'm probably not going to make it back to San Diego before it closes on 12/10. If you can, I highly recommend it!
Oh dear, I should not have spent so long writing this review. I have so much packing to do before Thursday morning. Eek!