Last week we reported on a reading of a musical based on the lives of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Now we hear there is another tuiner based on the famous criminal couple of the 1930s immortalized on screen by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty in the 1967 movie. The version receiving a reading is called Bonnie and Clyde: A Folktale and features a book by actor Hunter Foster (Happiness, Urinetown) and a score by Rick Crom (The Newsical). The reading will be held on June 16 at the Westside Theatre and stars Hunter's sister Sutton Foster (Shrek), and a cast of Broadway regulars including Will Swenson (Hair), Marc Kudisch (9 to 5), Debra Monk (Steel Pier), and Christopher Sieber (Shrek). The other B&C tuner, simply titled Bonnie & Clyde features muisc by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Don Black (Sunset Boulevard), and book by Ivan Menchell. It plays the La Jolla Playhouse, Nov. 10-Dec. 20
The Wildhorn Bonnie & Clyde replaces The Big Time, Dogulas Carter Beane's musical comedy about lounge singers on a cruise ship being held hostage by terrorists, in La Jolla's schedule. Competing shows employing the same basic material is unusual, but not unheard of--remember the duelling Wild Partys? There are no definite plans for either show to play New York, but it would be interesting to see if the two had a bloody shootout for a spot on Broadway. BTW, Wildhorn also has a musical version of Alice in Wonderland called Wonderland headed to the Alley Theatre in Houston, Jan. 9-Feb. 14, 2010.
In other news, producer Sonia Friedman (The Norman Conquests) announced at the Tony Awards she was bringing over the London revival of La Cage Aux Folles to Broadway next spring. Didn 't we just have a revival of that show just five years ago? Ah yes, according to Internet Broadway Data Base, it ran Dec. 9, 2004-June 26, 2005. Is there an audience for this show, after such a relatively recent production? Well this show has received raves in London and an Olivier Award for its star Douglas Hodge. Here's a rave review from The Independent. Maybe with same-sex marriage such a hot issue, a new La Cage might pull in the tourists, but even with finer feathers, it may be old news to Broadway-ites.
--David Sheward
