playbill vip

Hello Garden Theatre patrons, 

Welcome to our crazy world of Bonnie & Clyde! I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I am that you are here. And there are a few reasons for that. First off, this show is the entire reason The Garden Theatre came into existence! In 2017, I directed a production of Heathers The Musical. When we were holding auditions, a young Austin Colburn (our Clyde) came in to sing for us. I had never seen him before, but when he opened his mouth to sing I knew we had stumbled upon a super talent. The song he sang for his audition? Raise a Little Hell from Bonnie & Clyde. He was cast as JD in that production, and the whole time I had this thought in the back of my mind that he NEEDED to play Clyde at some point, and I needed to be the one to direct him in it. I could see it so clearly. Austin and I kept in touch after the show, and in 2019 I sent him a text telling him that playing Clyde needed to happen soon. We joked around saying we needed to convince a theatre to let us do it under their name. We then made what we thought was the biggest joke- what if we just created our own theatre and opened it with Bonnie & Clyde? Through that joke, The Garden Theatre was born. Of course a pandemic got in the way of our original plan and programming was shuffled around once we did announce the theatre, but Bonnie & Clyde now marks our 12th production, and our largest to date. 

Speaking of how large this show is, I would be remiss not to mention the sheer talent on and off stage that made this happen. 20 actors are part of this production, and nearly 30 artists worked offstage to bring this show to life. Every person has poured their soul into this, and I could not be more grateful. When I first heard the original Broadway cast album for this show, I fell in love. Frank Wildhorn's score is catchy, touching, and nothing short of just plain fun. As I listened to it over a decade ago, I saw big dance numbers that harkened back to the Golden Age of movie musicals. I could see Fred and Ginger dancing to these songs on a grand staircase, and Mickey and Judy tapping in a barn, trying to "save the show." I just knew this was a "dance show." You can imagine my shock when I came across archival footage of the Broadway production and saw several regional versions where there was virtually no dancing. Most of the songs were what we in the theatre world call "park and bark." Still, this music just called for dance numbers to me. So that's the exact approach we took. Our choreographer, Courtney Chilton, has done a brilliant job executing this vision with no road map. Our music director, Chelsea Duncan (who also MD'd our first musical, Into The Woods, in 2021), has ensured that everyone's voices are strong and prepped to soar while they dance for their lives. I could not have done this without these two fabulous, talented women. 

Now I wouldn't be an Artistic Director if I didn't give the theatre a shameless plug in this note. If you enjoy this show, please let people know about it! As a newer theatre, word of mouth is everything to us. Check in on social media and tag us, text or call your friends and tell them to come check us out, send a carrier pigeon singing your praises, chizel your review into stone... We don't care how the word gets out, as long as it does! If you really loved it, please consider purchasing a season subscription to our 23-24 season, which includes The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), Ann (starring Nora Hahn as Gov. Ann Richards; Nora plays the first female Texas governor, Ma Ferguson, in Bonnie & Clyde!), Reefer Madness, and the return of While Childhood Slept produced in partnership with Holocaust Museum Houston. And if you really, really loved it, please consider making a donation to the theatre. Ticket sales alone only cover about 50% of the cost of the show you are about to see. We cannot continue to create amazing art in this great city without your help. There's a QR code in this Playbill that will take you to our donation page. No donation is too small (or too large!). 

Thank you for coming! Enjoy the show!

Logan Vaden

Founding Artistic Director

The Garden Theatre