"Bonnie & Clyde The Musical"

Nottingham Theatre Royal.

At the height of the Great Depression, West Texas' Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow went from two small-town zeroes to America's most feared heroes, and Texas law enforcement's worst nightmares.

When Bonnie and Clyde meet, their mutual cravings for excitement and fame immediately set them on a mission to chase their dreams. Their bold and reckless behaviour turn the young lovers' thrilling adventure into a downward spiral, putting themselves and their loved ones, Buck Barrow - Clyde's brother - and Blanche, Buck's wife, in trouble with the law. Forced to stay on the run, the lovers resort to robbery and murder to survive. As the infamous duo's fame grows bigger, their inevitable end draws nearer.

Not only do the shotguns have double barrels, a lot of the cast also have names that are double-barrelled!! Coincidence or what?

This touring production is ever so slightly different from the previous productions that I've seen before, changes made I assume by the Director to keep the show even tighter that it is with local productions. Both young Bonnie and Clyde are played by the older Bonnie and Clyde actors, where as both local productions I've seen previously had child actors in force, so straight away that was new for me.

Clyde Barrow is played by Alex James-Hatton. Alex portrays Clyde as a cock-sure arrogant young man with a real eye for the ladies, well one in particular in Bonnie. Alex's vocals are very strong and shows that he has power and control in his voice, especially in the song "The World Will Remember Me" and "Raise A Little Hell", and a lovely bluesy tone in the song "Bonnie", but every song he performs highlights him as being a very versatile vocalist.

Bonnie Parker is played by Katie Tonkinson, and as with all these performers in this musical, the vocals are incredibly strong. Bonnie's head was turned by the confident and cheeky jailbird who won her heart and set her on the path to infamy and fortune. Throughout her joint reign of terror though she kept up her poetry. Katie has a lovely voice and her harmonies are gorgeous, whether it's in her duets, or in the whimsical "How 'Bout A Dance".

Buck Barrow is played by Sam Ferriday. After the siblings' initial jail break, Buck was torn between his loyalty to his brother and his love for his wife, Blanche, and doing what she told him to do, exhibited by her forcing his hand by getting him to return to jail after Clyde and Buck's initial jailbreak. There's a duet between Buck and Clyde called "When I Drive" which is great fun, and there's some clever choreography in this scene which reminds me slightly of the old gene Kelly style movies.

Blanche Barrow is played by Daisy Wood-Davis. I loved the fun vocal style of "You're Going Back To Jail"  in the scene where Buck turns up at Blanche's hair salon where she works; this scene is also slightly different to the alternatives I've seen but just as fun. Daisy's duet with Katie on the gorgeous "You Love Who You Love" is breath takingly good..

Ted Hinton, who is slightly obsessive over Bonnie, which gives him an unhealthy reason to eradicate Clyde, is played by Daniel Reid-Walters. Ted Hinton is part of the Sheriff's posse out to stop the murdering and robbing spree but that dangerous obsession overtakes Ted's view of the situation and gives the character an edge.  Another brilliant duet in this musical is with Ted and Clyde when they sing "You Can Do Better Than Him". Daniel has one of those soulful voices that sounds like it should be part of a band like Boys II Men.

 James Mateo-Salt plays The Sheriff who is in charge of the operation to track down the outlaws and take them off the streets by whatever method in a smaller but quite ruthless character role. All of these actors absolutely smashed the accent but I especially noticed The Sherriff's accent which seemed to have just that extra twang, and you all know that I love a good accent!

Jaz Ellington plays The Preacher. I love the gospel sound of his voice and "God's Arms Are Always Open" and "Made In America" are real gems. I am aware only too well of the vocal quality that Jaz has because he was a guest on my radio show a couple of years ago when he released an incredibly soulful song called "Watch Over Me". His voice never fails to give me tingles.

 Jasmine Beel plays Bonnie's mum, Emma Parker. She's very protective of her daughter, especially when Bonnie turns up at the house with Clyde in tow, she drops into the conversation that Bonnie's husband would be home soon, just to make sure that Clyde got the lay of the land around the Parker residence, which puts Clyde on the back foot.

Playing the Barrow boys parents are Taryn Sudding as Cumie Barrow and  Alexander Evans as Henry Barrow.

There are also some lovely comedy moments in the ensemble, especially when Bonnie and Clyde are robbing one particular bank, and one of the men they are holding up recognises them and asks for their autographs, and the mini-issues this causes for the two outlaws.

The soundtrack to this musical has a bit of something for everyone with several earworms; try getting "Raise A Little Hell" out of your head!. There is blues, rock, country, bluegrass and a sprinkling of gorgeous ballads. You'll hear echoes of "Jekyll and Hyde" music , due to the fact that Frank Wildhorn wrote the music for both musicals, as well as parts sounding similar to musicals like "Bugsy Malone", but that could just be because of the era that both of these musicals are set. 

Every track, and there are twenty four musical numbers in this show, so they come thick and fast, are so catchy. This has to be one of my favourite soundtracks of recent years.

Directed and choreographed by Nick Winston. The ensemble numbers are immense fun to watch and the numbers like "When I Drive" are technically not an easy routine, involving chairs and car tyres, but every choreographed section is so joyful to watch. the show is pacy and steams along at a great rate, leaving you almost as breathless as the escaping criminals.

The costumes and set are designed by Philip Whitcomb. I absolutely love the style in these costumes, especially the Barrow Brothers costumes, but that style of the 1920's is so classy, and visually very eye pleasing. Loved the set design and especially the video design by Nina Dunn which brought a real cinematic feel to the story.

I must also mention the realistic make up, especially on Clyde in one of the scenes. The wigs, hair and make up is by Helen Robinson-Tsingos.

Sound design is by Tom Marshall and you heard every word spoken and sung with clarity. Beautifully balanced all round.

Lighting design is by Zoe Spurr and this area created real excitement for me. The use of the pin spots, which looked exactly like light streaming through bullet holes all over the set.

It was only eighteen months since I first saw this musical, but in that short time, it's become a firm favourite of mine with its gorgeous soundtrack, its exciting story, and not forgetting that it's based on a true story, and every production I've seen has had the most excellent of casts.

There's also a Sign Language Interpreted Performance on the evening performance of Thursday 16 May.

"Bonnie & Clyde The Musical" is at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 18 May, so miss it at your peril!