Review: Bonnie and Clyde by Hamilton Musical Theatre a ‘ripsnorting spectacle’

Andy Derby as Clyde and Lily Burgess-Munro as Bonnie. Photo / Kerry Blakeney-Williams

What: Bonnie and Clyde

When: May 10-24

Where: Riverlea Theatre, 83 Riverlea Rd, Hamilton

Tickets: online via iticket

Reviewed by Gail Pittaway

Hamilton Musical Theatre has delivered a ripsnorting spectacle with their production of a musical based on the legend of outlaws, Bonnie and Clyde.

First written and produced around 2011, the show merges many musical styles of popular American music: gospel, blues, jazz and toe-tapping rockabilly as well as some stand-out torch songs.

The story gives a simple interpretation of the young lovers’ motives for crime: Clyde has already been so often in and out of prison that he is unlikely to be given a job, so only by robbing stores, then graduating to holding up banks can satisfy his desire to own fast cars and live in the style he feels is owed to him.

Besides, he wants to be like Billy the Kid, a famous outlaw.

Bonnie simply wants to be a star and make it to Hollywood, so initially falls in love with Clyde because he tells her her smile is that of an ‘It Girl’, like her great movie heroine, Clara Bow.

She just wants to be recognised, to get out of small-town America and make it big.

The younger versions of the two leads open the show with their dreams of future fame and return in a poignant confrontation with their older selves later.

Blanche Barrow (Lucy Thomas), Clyde's sister-in-law. Photo / Kerry Blakeney-Williams

The talent of even the youngest cast members sets a high standard of performance for the cast and this is maintained throughout.

The two stars of this production brilliantly show the confidence and desperation of these gun-toting lovers.

Andy Derby as Clyde Barrow gives an athletic and compelling performance, with nuanced bravado in character, and great vocal depth and range.

Lily Burgess-Munro as Bonnie Parker is a perfect match for Derby. She is pert, proud and primed for adventure.

Their singing, whether solo or in company, is equally outstanding.

Two actresses alternate nights with the part of Bonnie and given the high quality of the production, under Angela Walker’s taut direction, Zara Thompson is likely to be equally up for the task of taking on this demanding role.

Walker’s direction is supported by a large cast of technical and design crew, giving the show outstanding production values, with a slatted blind screen backdrop, slightly noisy but very intriguing, dividing the stage into three possible sections, and providing the sensational entries of the front end of the getaway car.

This is an important symbol of their story as it brings them together, in the giveaway opening scene, and finally where they unite to drive to their death, shot up by the frustrated police who have tried and failed to capture them.

Hamilton Musical Theatre stages Bonnie and Clyde. Photo / Hamilton Musical Theatre

The slats also provide a sepia background to the montage of images, news items, historical photos and billboards, in hues authentic to depression-era USA.

Against this backdrop, props wheel in and out for swift scene changes, including one charming claw foot bath scene, while an off-stage band, directed by Katie Wigmore, leads into the many musical style changes with ease.

For a show about outlaws who murder people, there is a great deal of comedy as well as pathos.

Audience favourites were Clyde’s brother Buck and his wife Blanche, played by Jono Freebairn and Lucy Thomas, also perfectly matched as performers together, and as foils for the increasingly infamous duo of Clyde and Bonnie.

There is plenty of heart-tugging, when the parents of the outlaws have their cameo moments, or hand clapping, especially from the preacher and congregation, with jubilant gospel numbers led by Cam Strother.

Among the caricatured members of the law who hunt them down, one lovesick deputy, Ted Hinton, (Alex Smith) sings poignantly of how Bonnie could have done so much better than Clyde.

It ends up being all about guns, cars and money, and one song, Made in America, can’t be heard without a wry thought about our current times.

The programme itself is fittingly designed as Bonnie’s scrapbook, with cast notes fashioned as cutouts from newspapers and magazines of the times, embellished with ‘her’ notes and comments, completing the sense of unity and attention to detail in this great night out at the theatre.

Bravo to cast, crew and all supporters.

Gail Pittaway is a Waikato-based writer, reviewer, and co-founder of Hamilton Book Month.