Bonnie & Clyde review: Is this a romcom or a cautionary tale?

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Don Black’s lyrics are as always literate and sharp and Frank Wildhorn’s music is serviceable but there is something lacking in the heart of the show that can’t quite decide whether it is period romcom or cautionary tale.

Pretty well everyone knows what happened to Bonnie and Clyde so opening with their bullet-riddled bodies in their car does not require a spoiler alert. But it does mean we need a climax more effective than its current banal conclusion.

Frances Mayli McCann and Jordan Luke Gage as the bank-robbing lovers have a certain chemistry and deserve a better vehicle for their talents.

The story would also work much better as an opera where the tragic and violent events are given full rein rather than compromised by the soft-centred demands of musical theatre.

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