Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theater makes a Broadway buff’s dreams come true with L.A.’s first major professional production of the Tony-nominated Bonnie & Clyde since its 2011 debut, not only one of Candlelight’s very best ever but one that more than merits being called “Broadway caliber all the way.”

 Were there any justice in the world of musical theater, Bonnie & Clyde’s Depression-era outlaw-robbers ought to have had enjoyed a long Broadway run, a National Tour, and regional productions by the score.

Sadly, Broadway critics with an apparent vendetta against composer Frank Wildhorn, saw to it that Bonnie & Clyde closed as quickly as his Wonderland: Alice’s New Musical Adventure did that same year, and musical theater lovers across the land have borne the brunt of their undeserved pans.

 It is of course possible too that celebrating the lives of sociopath Clyde Barrow and 15-minutes-of-fame seeker Bonnie Parker, who not only robbed banks, small stores, and rural gas stations but whose gang is believed to have killed as many as a dozen police officers and civilians along the way, helped contribute to Bonnie & Clyde’s untimely demise.

 Still, with Wildhorn’s country-western melodies as gorgeous as Broadway melodies get, deft lyrics by Don Black, and Ivan Menchell’s book compacting Bonnie and Clyde’s lives into a two-and-a-half-hour musical, Bonnie & Clyde deserved a better Broadway fate, just one reason to celebrate the big-stage, live-band production out Claremont way.

An opening sequence that has 1934 moviegoers viewing B&C’s blood-stained bodies in a get-away car pierced by over 160 bullet holes quickly flashes back to their younger selves’ dreams of escape from a Depression-era Texas that offered no promise of the future each one longed for.

 A 20-year-old Clyde (Beau Brians) and his older brother Buck (Nic Olsen) have just broken out of jail when Clyde meets ravishing redhead Bonnie (Callandra Olivia), and though Buck’s born-again wife Blanche (Katie McGhie) manages to convince her husband to turn himself in, Clyde’s return to the slammer is far less voluntary but fortunately short-lived thanks to his female partner in love and larceny.

The rest as they say is history.

 Whether you believe that Bonnie & Clyde glamorizes or humanizes its bank-robbing, love-making protagonists, it’s hard to imagine even the fiercest law-and-order advocate not being torn between condemnation and compassion, and when Bonnie sings “Dyin’ ain’t so bad, not if you both go together” to the most glorious of Wildhorn’s tunes, I defy all but the hardest of hearts not to be moved.

All of this adds up to a Broadway musical that L.A. should have gotten to see years ago, but better late than never Candlelight Pavilion serves up a production to match the finest National Tour or regional Equity stagings.

 It helps enormously that original Broadway cast member Victor Hernandez is on hand to direct with equal parts flair and attention to detail, that Chuck Ketter’s set takes the Texas-flavored Broadway original as its inspiration, that Candlelight has afforded this production a rare live band* under Ryan O’Connell’s expert musical direction, that original Broadway cast member Michael Lanning is on hand to reprise his humungous-voiced Preacher, and that the Candlelight cast is (as Lanning himself puts it) the equal of any on Broadway.

Brians follows the title role in Chance Theater’s Claudio Quest with a Clyde so commanding, charismatic and golden-throated, it’s no wonder Bonnie falls under his spell, and Olivia tops even this past summer’s Elle Woods with a revelatory star turn that shows off dramatic chops as stunning as her beauty and voice.

 McGhie (Legally Blonde’s Brooke Wyndham) is simply sensational as Buck’s moralistic but ultimately complicit wife Blanche, Olsen delivers a strong, striking performance as Clyde’s well-intentioned but ultimately complicit brother Buck, and recent UCI grad David Šášik’s terrific Ted Hinton is the lawman suitor deemed too squeaky clean by bad-boy-loving Bonnie,

 Jennifer Lawson’s devastating moments as Bonnie’s mom and Lisa Dyson’s as Clyde’s (the latter doubling as a flinty Governor Ferguson) deserve their own cheers as do Chris Coon (Deputy Johnson), Casey Michael Johnson (Bud), Greg Nicholas (Sheriff Schmidt), Rachel Saiz (Eleanor), Andrew Shubin (Detective Alcorn), Jim Skousen (Henry Barrow), Bethany Tangerman (Stella), Rick Wessel (Captain Frank Hamer), and Jennifer Wilcove (Trish), while Serena Thompson and Joey Caraway prove themselves stars in the making as Young Bonnie and Young Clyde.

In addition to Ketter’s set, Jonathan Daroca’s dramatic lighting, The Theatre Company’s top-notch 1930s costumes (coordinated by Merrill Grady and Linda Vick), Michon Gruber-Gonzales’s period wigs, and above all Aaron Rhyne’s original Broadway projections (from the ‘30s flick that opens the show to images of the musical’s real-life protagonists) give Bonnie & Clyde a Grade-A look, and Matt Merchant scores points for his realistic fight choreography. Caleb Shiba is stage manager.

I ended my 2015 review of a B&C staged reading with the words “Memo to Southern California regional theater artistic directors: Give us the fully-staged Bonnie & Clyde that musical theater lovers—and the musical itself—so richly deserve.” Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre artistic director John LaLonde has made this reviewer’s dreams come true.

*Julian Cantrell, David Catalan, O’Connell, James Saunders, Adrian Vega, Alan Waddington

Candlelight Pavilion, 455 W. Foothill Blvd., Claremont.
www.candlelightpavilion.com

–Steven Stanley
September 23, 2018

Tags: Bonnie Parker, Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre, Clyde Barrow, Don Black, Frank Wildhorn, Ivan Menchell, Los Angeles Theater Review