ANDY DRACHENBERG: Bonnie & Clyde have been given a lot of titles over the past century… from celebrities to criminals, there’s still no real agreement on their actions. Can you tell us a little about the Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow we meet in this story?
JEREMY JORDAN: Bonnie and Clyde obviously were outlaws, they robbed banks in the 30’s during the depression… but more importantly they were two kids madly in love with each other who came from a very poor background, and didn’t have the means to do what they wanted. They wanted to be more than what they were. Clyde was idolizing the big outlaws of the time because that’s all that he knew, Bonnie was idolizing the big movie stars of the time. They wanted to rise out of their really less than humble upbringings.
LAURA OSNES: Bonnie grew up writing and wanting to go to the movies. When she was 15, she saved all her money and went to get a glamour shot of herself. Of all the things to buy during the Great Depression, you’d think you would buy clothes, or food, or something you really need. She splurged and got herself a glamour shot.
JJ: Clyde grew up a kid who always got himself into trouble, not an outlaw, but definitely in trouble. From the moment that he could drive, he would drive any car he could get his hands on. One of the big things they are infamous for was hijacking cars- the first grand theft auto was Clyde Barrow.
LO: And he was a good driver…
JJ: He was a great driver! There’s this legend that as soon as he started to drive, the ground would just suck him in, because he would just disappear.
LO: And he was a musician too!
JJ: Yes, he was a musician. I don’t know if he had musical aspirations, but he could play a bunch of instruments.
LO: Bonnie loved writing poetry, and in fact, a lot of her real poems are used during the production.
JJ: The poems became famous. – during their whole ordeal, Bonnie would send her poetry to the papers to excuse them.
LO: [quoting] “There are a lot of untruths to these write-ups!” I think that may be why the public fell in love with them even though they were criminals.
JJ: I think she spent some time in prison, didn’t she?
LO: She did…
JJ: That’s where she wrote one of her most famous poem called…
LO & JJ: Suicide Sal.
JJ: We don’t have it in the show, but Bonnie definitely did spend some time in jail… that’s where her darker poems came from.
LO: They both had big dreams, and I think that’s what really bound them together. Everyone else around them were content… well, not content, but able to live a more droning life. They (Bonnie & Clyde) felt like they had no choice.
AD: These two are known everywhere. What is exciting and new about this production’s take on their lives and their ‘classic’ tale?
LO: It’s obviously a historical show about the time and these two famous outlaws but it’s also a show about love, and about family.
JJ: And it’s about the Depression – this story is told really interestingly. We have a set that literally looks like an abandoned, broken down collapsed shack, and it gives you this feeling of instability. Nothing’s quite right or on kilter, nothing’s going to be straight forward, nothing’s going to be right on track. Everything is going to end up how this shack is. So the visual aspect of it is a really great element of the story in itself, having to always be on slants…
JJ: And that really helps the characters as well.
LO: We also have incredible projections in the show that help tell the story: the dates, photos of the dust bowl, bread lines…
JJ:…There’s headlines and mug shots… and they are all real. It all helps tie in the truth to the story.
AD: How does 20th Century American life play a part in this story? Tell me about Bonnie & Clyde’s hopes and Dreams… their realities… and everything in-between…
LO: The whole idea of the American Dream, and the show being centered around that was new to the Asolo production and I think it adds a lot to the show by saying that those times and the Great Depression era made Bonnie & Clyde who they were. They were born into it. They had no choice.
JJ: In terms of the American dream, they come from these horrible lived-in tents in the slummiest parts of Texas, and they wanted to become more than they were, and that’s where it started. It went completely horribly wrong. Clyde got in to this life of robbing and stealing — they didn’t want to do that forever, they certainly didn’t. Bonnie wanted to go be a movie star, but everything else kept getting in the way… The law got in their way, and the fact that they loved their families so much… that they always had to go back — once they were ‘Wanted,’ it was either turn themselves in and do a lot of time before anything good could happen, or keep staying on the run, and just never stop running.
LO: What added to their downward spiral was that they had such big dreams. Bonnie especially, I think, was always trying to get Clyde to try to go straight at first. She loved him so much that she couldn’t leave him, and was like “Well, okay, I guess we’ll just rob a couple of more banks together and then we’ll go straight.”
JJ: The only way Clyde knew how to get to those dreams, or get to a place where they could have any money to afford those dreams, was to… ya know… be a criminal.
LO: They kind of dug their own graves.
JJ: Well. Clyde dug it, and Bonnie jumped in and helped him dig some more.
LO: [laughs] Right!
AD: What has it been like re-creating these historical icons and to go inside the heads of ‘enemies of the state?’
JJ: Playing Clyde is great because it’s a huge challenge. Clyde is a murderer, a criminal, and a thief. Generally, when you put those attributes to somebody, you’re like “Oh, he’s the bad guy.” So to get people to like him and hopefully root for him at one point, or have some sort of compassion – that’s the fun about, trying to find those moments. It’s easier to play the “I’m-so-angry-at-the-world-I-hate-everything” but within that, you can find ‘Why is he so angry?’ ‘Is there something in him that wishes things could be different?’ There’s a scene where he’s in a bank and he’s mad at the banker because the bank doesn’t have any money because it went bankrupt. He’s yelling and screaming and threatening to kill this guy, but in that he’s desperate for revenge against the bank…
LO: Even the other people in the bank are like “Fine, they took my money too!”
JJ: “Yeah, kill em!” The bank has been the bane of his existence since he was a kid. The bank took away his family farm. He’s got this grudge, and he has to work through that whole “emotional” thing at the same time, which I think is really interesting.
LO: Playing Bonnie too, it’s a lot of similar things- I have to find the things that I relate to in her. We (Laura & Jeremy) aren’t really killers or murderers in real life- and I’ve never robbed a bank. It’s fun as an actress to get to play those types of characters (and to shoot a gun) because I’ve never done that. The fact that she wrote poetry and that she’s young and in love,- that’s Bonnie’s whole draw: the love story and the fame aspect of it. Making them believable characters, and making them likable despite of what they did. I think the piece does that. It helps us with that because it’s written so well that you do empathize with them and you cheer for them because you fall in love with their love story. You’re saying “I want them to be happy…”
JJ: It’s great to see them have this sort of fear in them and see what made them that way. That’s what gives the audience compassion for them, is that they are so in love. If they were just two murderers with “daddy issues”, or had their own issues, like the criminals you see in movies… The fact that they’re so in love with each other really helps people somehow relate to them.
LO: By the end of the show they come to accept their fate, and accept “We’ve done these things to get us here, and if we’re going to die, we’re going to die together. That’s better than living on without each other.”
JJ: That’s what so sad about it. They are on the run and if they get caught, they’re going to be put to death. You can only stay on the run for so long, especially for them being so connected and tied to their families. They could have gotten some money and got on a boat and went to Europe, but they couldn’t do that because they are so invested in their homes. I think that’s another big element to the story that has grown a lot.
AD: And working on this production…the music, the characters, the story — Is it what you would expect for a show about criminals?
JJ: Someone told me a really cool thing where they described the show as a ballad. It’s not a musical, it’s not a play- it’s a ballad. It’s this epic tale that is not only a grounded story, it’s told through song.
LO: Frank Wildhorn wrote the music and I love singing it- it’s an incredible score, really fun music to sing!
JJ:Almost too fun to sing! You hear how I’m a little scratchy in my voice, too fun!
LO: It’s rockabilly, blues, country, soul, and gospel all in one! Ivan Menchell wrote the script, so it’s very real. I’ve had people come to the show and say I feel like I’m watching real life! It’s so natural.
JJ: It’s not your typical musical theatre. Ivan Menchell is mostly a playwright. He’s done a couple of little musical things, but this show doesn’t have a lot of big flashy dance numbers, and it doesn’t have any jazz fingers. It’s grounded and real.
JEREMY JORDAN (Clyde) recently starred as revolutionary newsie Jack Kelly in Newsies at The Paper Mill Playhouse. He starred on Broadway as Tony in West Side Story. Other Broadway roles include theoriginal cast of Rock of Ages. Other regional roles include Bonnie & Clydeat Asolo Repertory, Big River at Goodspeed Musicals and The Little Dog Laughed at Hartford Theater Works. Readings include: Pretty Dead Girl at Playwrights Horizons, Bubble Boy: The MusicalatCherry Lane Theater, The Flamingo Kid at Roundabout Theatre Company and Calvin Berger Manhattan Theater Company. This holiday season, Jordan will play Dolly Parton’s grandson in the new film Joyful Noise.
LAURA OSNES (Bonnie) was last seen on Broadway in the revival of Anything Goes (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Astaire Award nominations). She returns to Bonnie & Clydehaving originated the role of Bonnie Parker at the Asolo Repertory Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse (San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award- Outstanding Lead Female Performance in a Musical). She recently starred as Nellie Forbush in Lincoln Center Theatre’s Production of South Pacificand made her Broadway debut as Sandy in the most recent Broadway revival of Grease, having won the role and the hearts of America on NBC’s reality competition “Grease: You’re The One That I Want.” Regional: Broadway: Three Generations at the Kennedy Center (Kim McAfee), Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. Television: the HBO pilot The Miraculous Year, written by John Logan and directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Sondheim! The Birthday Concert at Avery Fisher Hall (available on DVD).