Review: BONNIE & CLYDE at The Garden Theatre

The ironically named The Garden Theatre Company continues to grow with their exuberant production of the operatic melodrama that is BONNIE & CLYDE.  This time around they have created a show that has far more dance than they have ever attempted, and also way more of a challenge to pull off with its rockabilly score and sardonic take on America.  But the company is up to it, and the show is a fun energetic musical that should find audiences excited to see two lovers on a crime spree during the dog days of summer.  Just a reminder, the MATCH complex in Houston has some of the best air conditioning around.  And this show is pretty hot and sultry, so it’s a perfect pairing.  

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BONNIE & CLYDE is a unique choice for a theater company if only because it ran for a notoriously short thirty-six show engagement on Broadway.  It was written with music by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Don Black, and a book by Ivan Menchell back in 2009.  It is conceived as a country, rockabilly, and gospel-tinged retelling of the legendary crime spree of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.  The script  whitewashes the historical ruthlessness of the real life couple in order to create a satirical take on the American obsession with guns, celebrity, and desperation for money.  The show contrasts crime with a church feel around the pair who seem to be fleeing from the banal sense of sorrow in Depression era God-fearing America.  

Austin Colburn and Jackie Cortina star in BONNIE & CLYDE as the titular characters.  They’ve been regulars at The Garden Theatre and were last seen as leads back in November for the company’s wildly fun CRUEL INTENTIONS.  These two have an amazing chemistry onstage, and prove to be the yin to the other’s yang as performers.  Austin is all swagger and dance charisma as Clyde Barrow, and he’s a bit of a rockstar throughout the show.  You can’t take your eyes off him, and he is sexy and assured every beat of the story.  He’s the true triple threat adept at singing, dancing, and acting, and up there with Houston’s best talent in all three. Jackie’s Bonnie is a bit quieter, and rather smolders instead of combusts.  Her dancing is far more muted, and her singing reserved.  She’s a ravishing woman, and she seems to believe every line spoken. Jackie manages to make the quieter moments a bit more real, while Austin kicks the volume up to eleven at every turn.  Together they create a very sympathetic version of Bonnie and Clyde, and the audience will find it easy to be on their side.  They sizzle together, and the casting is perfection.  

Taylor Fisher and Kinley Pletzer play Clyde’s brother and sister-in-law.  They provide a counterpoint to Bonnie and Clyde’s criminal mindset by being more reticent and determined to be “better people”.  Taylor seems to embody the redneck small time crook with a heart of gold easily, while Kinley plays hysterics with alarming facility.  The girl can scream on cue like nobody else. Kinley’s singing voice is one of the strongest in the show, and her Blanche shines anytime she has to launch into a number.  They both add a lot, and they hold their own against the charismatic duo across from them.    

Adam Kral portrays Ted Hinton, a small town sheriff smitten with Bonnie.  Adam sings the house down, and embodies a legal morality that is singular in its vision of right and wrong.  He’s the long arm of the law, and his all-American good looks serve the role well. Brandon Tanner takes on the more gospel-tinged numbers as a preacher, and boy can he deliver the divine goods when needed.  His songs are highlights of the evening, and he could lead a revival with no problem.  The whole ensemble is strong and brings an electric liveliness you seldom see in homegrown theater around these parts.  The cast here from top to bottom are so passionate and committed, and they seem to be having a blast doing this one.  They are the best thing going for this production, and they make it worth the visit to MATCH.  

Technically Logan Vader and his team have opted for the traditional approach of wooden slats and projections to create the world.  It’s very effective, but quite similar to other productions of BONNIE & CLYDE that have come before.  The lighting from Jacob Zamarripa is creative, and there are insanely effective sequences during the shootouts with strobes and blood red illumination.  Is it wrong that I wanted more blood during the violent sequences?  The lack of it made the show seem even more whitewashed. For example when Clyde is shot he has no visible wound, so the stakes never seem high enough.    

If anything lets the company down it may well be the musical’s script and songs.  The show meanders a bit, never focusing on what it is ultimately trying to say about America.  You get a sense it is on the verge of something powerful, but then it switches gears and softens the blows too readily.  BONNIE & CLYDE never offers killer songs, and it doesn’t have the edge to live up to the legacy of the real duo or the dynamite 1967 Hollywood adaptation.  This version of Bonnie and Clyde seems too soft and too cleaned up from its inception.  The show doesn’t seem to pay off even with the wild subject matter.  

And then there are the microphones.  The MATCH theater is a small venue in Box 3, and the cast is accompanied by a pre-recorded track.  You could approach the show by turning down the orchestration and letting singers perform with no amplification, and it would be fine.  On opening night some microphones worked while others did not.  Surprisingly, when the mics went out on actors I heard them just fine. These microphones popped, they squealed, and they were always front and center in front of the actor’s faces. Microphone packs and white balls on wires look out of place in Depression era America.   Not surprisingly Austin and Jackie work with them better than the rest of the cast since they seem more used to them.  But during kissing moments you could audibly hear slurps, and any time an actor screamed or got loud the speakers began to distort everything.  And the feedback.  Nothing ruins an actor’s entrance quite like being accompanied by an audible squelch from a microphone.  It’s definitely an aspect of tech more theaters should pay attention to. 

But don’t think that the script or the microphones are deal breakers, because the performers do overcome most of those issues.  What BONNIE & CLYDE gets right is it possesses an infectious energy and simple joy of performing that wins the audience over.  Courtney Chilton has done wonders with choreography here, and uses each performer to the best of their abilities.  She adds an element of dance in the narrative that elevates this show.  The choreography is expressive even when the songs are not as effective.  Logan Vaden’s direction is energetic, always moving the show along at a zippy fantastic pace.  His Garden Theatre is quickly becoming a musical company to watch here in Houston.  I can honestly say I had more fun at this show than I did at many of the recent touring or larger scale musicals in the theater district proper.  BONNIE & CLYDE is a blast thanks to this company’s unflagging love of their art.  

BONNIE & CLYDE runs only through August 20th at the MATCH complex, so you don’t have too long to catch them.  If you are picking seats make sure to sit in the center section rather than on the sides.  The projections and a lot of the performance is aimed towards that aspect the best.  Seating is general admission.

Photo taken by Pin Lim.  

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