[tea emoji] + the book of bonnie & clyde being bad
this is coming from a person who is obsessed with this show and recommends it to everyone she knows, there are a lot of issues with the bonnie and clyde script.
i personally feel like the ending is rushed. while it makes sense for the ending to be fast-paced because it’s a chase, we should feel frantic and desperate but not because the script feels that way. we should feel that way because of the action within the scene. i think they could’ve done with some longer, more developed scenes. looking at the script, it’s about 96 pages, compared to the cinderella script that is 134 pages for example. the scenes before the songs are around 2-3 pages, some are 4 maybe more but that’s pretty rare. some of the scenes after are a bit longer though. i’m not saying that things can’t be developed in that many pages, and of course, the songs should really move forward the plot (which i think the score does a good job of doing) they definitely could’ve had longer scenes to make some things clearer. i know that this happens in the middle of a song, but an example is, when bonnie is 15 and says she’s going to get married and her mom says she’s too young, bonnie shows her mom the glamor shot that she had taken and her mom is like “this is pretty” and then they just continue on with the song and it’s like ??? either extend that and make emma have another moment of trying to convince bonnie that she’s too young and then continue with the song, or don’t put it in there. like there’s no way that her mom would just agree that quickly. that’s cheap storytelling.
i also feel like some of the characters could’ve been more developed. blanche especially. while i don’t know much about who blanche actually was (i will eventually read her book my life with bonnie and clyde, as i’ve been meaning to for the last like 9 years lol) i felt like she was underdeveloped. basically what we know about blanche is: she’s a hairdresser, christian, against clyde & buck constantly breaking the law, and she hates bonnie. but why does she hate bonnie so much? they definitely don’t get off to a good start at the beginning, but blanche hates her right away. in fact the first thing that blanche says before she even meets bonnie is “when on earth did clyde find time to meet some tart?” blanche also fails to completely recognize how she and bonnie are similar. they both are in love with the barrow boys and pretty much go against their better instincts and follow the guys because they love them. i guess in blanche’s eyes it’s different because she’s married to buck and clyde and bonnie aren’t, but ultimately they make the same choices but blanche seems to find her actions okay and bonnie’s are not. again, i don’t know much about how blanche was in real life, but out of the main 4, bonnie, clyde, buck and blanche, i feel like blanche is the most underdeveloped of the 4.
but there are actually a lot of things that i really enjoy about the script! something i think the script does a great job of doing is showing how clearly in love bonnie and clyde are pretty much from their first meeting. that chemistry is right there in the script. i’ve read a few books on bonnie and clyde, and what everyone seems to agree with is that right from the beginning, bonnie and clyde were completely infatuated with each other. i think that ivan menchell writes that pretty clearly. i think they did a good job of writing bonnie as a strong character, and not just strong because she helps clyde rob banks. but she’s very clear in who she is and what she wants, and she doesn't let others (including clyde) bully her into things. she very clearly makes her own choices, and. think that it's written well. i also think that they wrote clyde very clearly, his motivations are very clear. once ‘raise a little hell’ happens, you know exactly what path clyde is going to go down. not just because we ultimately know what happens to them, but because his downfall is foreshadowed pretty quickly and it’s easy to understand why he makes the choices he makes.
i love a lot of the quick dialogue between bonnie and clyde. they’ve got some real great moments like i love the “oh you are so in love, sugar” that clyde says when they first meet when bonnie reads him the poem she writes, and then how she says “oh you are so in love, baby” when he sings bonnie. and the whole “nothing rhymes with clyde and bonnie” bit is great as well, and from what i’ve read about bonnie and clyde, seem like real conversations that they could’ve had.
another thing that i think is great and i wish there was a bit more of in the show, is the use of young bonnie and young clyde. i love the transition from the ‘how ‘bout a dance’ intro music into picture show and how we see bonnie and clyde dead in the car and then the car backs up and then young bonnie comes on stage and starts singing, ah i actually have chills thinking about it. it was just so well done! and i love when young clyde appears to clyde after buck gets shot. that entire moment is done so well! but i would’ve loved more times when young clyde and bonnie appear to their future selves (in fact if i ever get to direct this show, i would wanna play around with having them appear and just observe some moments, but that’s a different conversation for another time)
now i don’t know how much of this was in the script beforehand or directorial choices, or if it was already in the script but the use of projections is brilliant. especially when they show the actual photos of bonnie and clyde. i just think it’s a really nice addition to the show, it adds a lot in my opinion.
so to make a long answer longer, i think that the music does a really great job of moving the plot forward (i know that the score is wildhorn and the script is menchell, but they go hand in hand!) and that bonnie and clyde are very well written, but there was a lot that wasn’t developed especially with some of the other characters (like ted! oh i didn’t talk about ted....this answer is long enough already, i’ll do that another time)
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