Gil Hates Everything

Gil Hates Musicals reviews “Bonnie & Clyde” (2009), music by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Don Black, book by Ivan Menchell.

Everyone’s familiar with the famous quote “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a musical in possession of a good soundtrack must be by someone other than Frank Wildhorn”. But it’s easy to forget that the much-maligned Frank, whom I have previously described on GHM as the Michael Bay of Broadway, “a man so at sea with this story that I felt a pressing need to call the coastguard”, and so forth, did actually produce at least one good musical before his descent into the nightmare fields of dreck such as “Waiting For The Moon”. I refer of course to “The Scarlet Pimpernel”, which has a few too many ballads but which delivers some thrilling and funny songs with memorable and sweeping tunes… although some people also like “Jekyll & Hyde”, which, sure, it’s alright, although with a lower win/loss ratio. Still, when Wildhorn flops, he flops like a motherfucker, specifically a big fat motherfucker flopping into a swimming pool, possibly an empty one; it gets messy. So seeing his name on this show did not seduce me with sheer anticipation.

And then, Don Black… what can one say about Don Black that isn’t basically “well, he writes lyrics and they’re sort of there”? From “Tell Me On A Sunday”, “Aspects Of Love”, and “Sunset Boulevard” to his unproduced “revuesical” (I know, I know) “Off The Wall”, Black is one of those wordsmiths who toshes out the required number of words without really leaving you uplifted or whatever. His words only become memorable when harnessed to an interesting bit of music, like “Unexpected Song”, or “Sunset Boulevard”‘s title track, or pretty much anything from “Bombay Dreams”. You wouldn’t really go see a musical because he’s written the lyrics, is my point.

But hark! What unexpectedness through yonder window breaks? It is “Bonnie & Clyde”, which, while delivering a rather sketchy take on the actual story, is pinned up by a fair number of tolerable-to-good songs produced by this unpromising pairing. Is this like multiplying two negatives to get a positive? I certainly didn’t think I’d be telling you this was worth listening to, but there you are, or rather, here you are, as after those lengthy opening remarks it’s time to tell you about the show.

I’m presuming you know the basics of the Bonnie & Clyde story: two young bad’uns in the 1930s go round robbing banks and killing people, rebellious and carefree, until they get ambushed and blown away by the cops. Er, that was short wasn’t it. Why are they so famous? Because of fame, basically; they had a legend built around them by the media, thanks to photos found in their hideout and published across the country showing the two of them posing with guns and smokes and basically acting like celebrities rather than seedy criminals. They had a laugh, and as a result they had a rep.

The details of the story are of course where the action is (or the psychology anyway, which is the action as far as musical theatre is concerned). Was Clyde a victim of the prison system? Was Bonnie suffering from hybristophilia, the affliction which draws women to dominant and dangerous men, and did she in fact kill no-one, in contradiction to the notable 1967 movie which made Faye Dunaway as deadly a gun-moll as Warren Beatty was a carefree Robin Hood wannabe? There’s a lot of paraphernalia to this story, even for something which happened in my mother’s lifetime, which makes it appropriately myffic, a modern-ish American fairytale with an unhappy ending, as the individuals are crushed by corruption and capitalism. Hey, it’s almost like you could work in some kind of reference to modern austerity and neoliberalism.

I’ve got to say I’m not entirely sure I like the sound of the book of this show; if they’re repitching Bonnie as a bit of a victim then that’s a bit of an ask, although in keeping with the modern “it’s the patriarchy innit” approach to explaining the helplessness of female characters, so I can see the structural appeal, and as for Clyde, well, the evidence is that he was raped in prison, so his rage against the system during the height of the Great Depression is understandable. Which doesn’t excuse him robbing with violence and leaving plenty of corpses in his wake. So I’m not totes impressed with that side of things; you have to do a lot to justify a murderer, and while embedding it in a world where terrible things happen as a matter of course can work, I don’t approve of Clyde’s reasons. Sweeney Todd – you’ll recall from my review (WON’T YOU) – manages it by making Todd’s quest righteous, his victims monstrous, and his purity a contrast with the horror of Mrs Lovett goading him into it. Clyde, with or without Bonnie, is a far sketchier anti-hero, regardless of whether he got fucked up the ass in prison. He’s no Batman, I think we can agree on that.

But, moral approbation aside, what we have in terms of the tunes is an unusually energetic suite of country / rockabilly / gospel numbers which set the scene (“Picture Show”), raise a smile (“You’re Going Back To Jail”), excite the clapping muscles (“God’s Arms Are Always Open”) and have at least a stab at touching the heart (“You Can Do Better Than Him”, “That’s What You Call A Dream”), as well as raging against the machine (“Made In America”) and, er, well, there’s also “Dyin’ Ain’t So Bad” and “Raise A Little Hell”, which might be intended as major songs but remind me of the more overblown moments of “Jekyll & Hyde”. I mean, who knew Wildhorn and Black could turn out songs this catchy? They’re genuinely worth listening to. This certainly isn’t “Parade” (although I can’t help thinking that Wildhorn listened to JRB’s “The Picture Show” and then… well, wrote all this), but it’s certainly not a complete waste of time, and the band is well-constructed, with tasteful bursts of electric guitar and only a few tasteless bursts of musical-theatre piano.

Basically, and to my complete surprise, I enjoyed listening to this, and while my reservations about the show as a holistic entity remain, I have no problem recommending the soundtrack to you for a listen. Wonders will never fucking cease, Wildhorn and Black have pulled this one off.

Gil Hates Musicals awards “Bonnie & Clyde” seven out of ten pieces of bullet-riddled bamboo.

(originally posted January 21, 2016)