‘Bonnie & Clyde’ Hit Every Note

After a Sold Out Premiere Run in April, Contact Theatre Is Back And Wows Again

Fringe ArtsElias Grigoriadis — Published September 9, 2019

Very few stories grasp our collective imagination like that of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. They’ve been the subject of pop culture’s obsession as much as any other couple. One of the main reasons is the devilishly captivating chemistry the two lovestruck outlaws shared and how hard it is to replicate.

That wasn’t an issue during Contact Theatre’s performance of Bonnie & Clyde at the Mainline Theatre.

Based on music by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Don Black, and a book by Ivan Menchell, the play brilliantly navigates everything, from how the eponymous couple of outlaws met, to the toll it took on their families, all the way to their death by ambush at the hands of Texas Rangers.

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Camille Cormier Morasse was nothing short of ravishing and captivating as Bonnie Parker and matched up delightfully with Joel Bernstein’s portrayal of the sub-machine gun-toting Clyde Barrow.

Every time they were on stage together it was impossible to be distracted; they commanded your attention and drew you into their world in such a way that you couldn’t help but cheer for them every time they ran into the law or held up a grocery store.

Daniel Wilkenfeld played police officer Ted Hinton, one of Bonnie Parker’s childhood friends. Saddened by her transformation into the outlaw we all know and love, his beautiful rendition of “You Can Do Better Than Him,” is a devastating ode to unrequited love.

The entire cast delivered emotional and brutally honest performances. Clyde’s brother Buck and his wife Blanche, played by Mike Mastromonaco and Julia Kennific respectively, stole the show with a gripping back and forth that couldn’t help but break your heart.

Buck’s willingness to rejoin his brother on the run clashes with Blanche’s faith, and Mastromonaco and Kennific both deliver the brutal realities the characters faced.

Daniel Wilkenfeld played police officer Ted Hinton, one of Bonnie Parker’s childhood friends. Saddened by her transformation into the outlaw we all know and love, his beautiful rendition of “You Can Do Better Than Him,” is a devastating ode to unrequited love.

The use of the limited space in the Mainline Theatre was brilliant as well. With a scene on the small side to work with, the cast’s movement and the efficiency of the layout was spot on with the full potential of every square inch taken advantage of.

Every aspect of the play went off without a hitch. The band, led by Nick Gallant and playing the Tony-nominated score wonderfully, even got the chance to be involved in one of the numerous hold-ups Bonnie and Clyde partake in throughout the play.

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The close seating of the Mainline made for a much more personal show and allowed you to appreciate the performances. By a mile, the best scene of the show was the shootout with the police. After spending months on the run, Bonnie, Clyde, Buck, and Blanche were surrounded and had to shoot their way to safety.

With the resources at their disposal, the cast, lighting crew, and every person involved with how the shootout would go down put together an incredibly cinematic scene that grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go.

Between killing the lights, flashes of gunfire, and the younger versions of Bonnie and Clyde, the shootout scene illustrates perfectly just how much attention to detail was put into the piece.

The non-profit theatre company put in a strong performance that displayed a lot of talent and ambition for bigger and more challenging pieces. They will be holding open auditions for their next performance, Chicago, which will premiere in April 2020 at the Rialto.