We all know that the Depression-era bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow – Bonnie & Clyde as they became known – died young. So this musical doesn’t mess around on that front, opening and closing with their death.

The show then traces their lives from childhood to their final moments in 1934, when they died in a hail of bullets. Having evaded the law for three years as they robbed banks and small stores, killing 13 people who got in the way, a group of police officers ambushed them in Louisiana and fired over 100 shots into the car they were driving. Their death made frontpage news, as their exploits had done, which would have doubtless pleased the pair – for celebrity, it seems, was the thing they courted most.

Bonnie & Clyde

Blake Appelqvist and Teagan Wouters in Bonnie & Clyde, Joshua Robson Productions in association with Hayes Theatre Co, 2022. Photo © Grant Leslie Photography

Interest in Bonnie & Clyde’s story was revived by Arthur Penn’s 1967 film starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. This musical, featuring music by Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde), lyrics by Don Black...