Frank Wildhorn's Bonnie & Clyde to Premiere at La Jolla Playhouse in November

La Jolla Playhouse announced today the addition of the world-premiere musical Bonnie & Clyde, to its 2009-10 season, replacing The Big Time. This production features music by Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel), lyrics by Tony Award-winner Don Black (Sunset Boulevard, Song and Dance), book by Ivan Menchell (The Cemetery Club, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), and direction by Jeff Calhoun (Deaf West's Big River and Pippin, Grease!). Bonnie & Clyde will run November 10 - December 20, 2009 in The Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Theatre.

Bonnie & Clyde is based on the lives of Depression-era outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, whose notorious exploits captured the country's imagination. This seductive and cinematic new musical examines how a troubled Texas teen and a love-sick waitress became America's most infamous couple, with a thrilling new score that combines rockabilly, blues and gospel music.

Responding to media requests, composer Wildhorn said "When I started working on this show, no one was talking about Bonnie & Clyde. Now, two new books have been published, a remake of the Warren Beatty/Faye Dunaway classic film is in production, and the FBI recently released close to a thousand pages of classified memos on the infamous couple. Clearly, they are once again piquing the interest of a troubled America.

This has been a musical challenge unlike any I've known before. These are the most incredible and intriguing characters I've given a musical voice to. Until now, the characters I've written for have been fictional; I've taken theatrical emotions and tried to make them real. With Bonnie and Clyde, I'm taking real emotions and making them theatrical. The exciting libretto, with its danger, pathos and comedy, has inspired a score from country to Texas blues, from gospel to ragtime."

As previously announced, La Jolla Playhouse's acclaimed 2008 production of Memphis will transfer to Broadway in October, 2009. Artistic Director Christopher Ashley, who helmed The Playhouse production last year, will direct the New York version as well. Ashley was originally slated to direct the Theatre's fall production of The Big Time, but due to his new Memphis rehearsal schedule in New York, The Playhouse has chosen the new musical Bonnie & Clyde as its final show of the season.

"We are overjoyed that Memphis has found a home on Broadway," said La Jolla Playhouse Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg. "We are confident that Bonnie & Clyde will be a sensational new musical for our audiences and a terrific finale to our 2009/10 season."

"The timing of Memphis' move to Broadway turns out to be wonderfully serendipitous for The Playhouse, as it allows us to bring our audiences the stunning new musical Bonnie & Clyde," noted Ashley. "From the creative dream team of Frank Wildhorn, Don Black, Ivan Menchell and Jeff Calhoun, this theatrical gem gives audiences a fresh look at the now-mythical tale of one of the most infamous couples in history."

Subscriptions to La Jolla Playhouse's 2009/2010 season are available by calling (858) 550-1010 or by visiting lajollaplayhouse.org.

In 1999 Frank Wildhorn (composer, Bonnie & Clyde) became the first American composer in 22 years to have three shows running simultaneously on Broadway: Jekyll & Hyde, Scarlet Pimpernel, and The Civil War, which altogether garnered eight Tony nominations. Wildhorn also wrote additional songs for Broadway's Victor/Victoria and was a producer and co-creator of Harlem Song at the legendary Apollo Theater. Most recently in the United States, Wildhorn's For the Glory: The Civil War Musical opened at the Majestic Theater in Gettysgurg, PA. He has enjoyed International success with Never Say Goodbye (written with Shuichiro Koike) performed by Takarazuka Revue in Takarazuka, Japan; Rudolf - The Last Kiss (written with Jack Murphy & Nan Knighton) opening in Budapest, Hungary and in Vienna, Austria and multiple productions of Jekyll & Hyde: In Concert.

Don Black (lyricist, Bonnie & Clyde) received two Tony awards for best book and lyrics of a musical for his work (with Christopher Hampton) on Sunset Boulevard. This marked his third collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber. They first joined forces to write the song cycle Tell Me on a Sunday which developed to form the basis of the stage show Song and Dance. They were reunited with Aspects of Love. He also wrote the lyrics for the Andrew Lloyd Webber produced Bombay Dreams. Awards include an Oscar for his song "Born Free," five Academy Award nominations, two Tony Awards and three Tony nominations, five Ivor Novello awards, a Golden Globe and many platinum, gold and silver discs. He has worked with some of the world's leading composers, including Jule Styne, Henry Mancini, Quincy Jones, John Barry, Elmer Bernstein, among others. Black has written a quintet of James Bond theme songs: "Thunderball," "Diamonds Are Forever," "The Man with the Golden Gun," "Surrender" and "The World Is Not Enough." He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008.

Ivan Menchell (book, Bonnie & Clyde) wrote the screenplay for the popular film The Cemetery Club, starring Ellen Burstyn, Olympia Dukakis and Diane Ladd, which was based on his Broadway play of the same name. He also contributed material to hit Broadway musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Jeff Calhoun (director, Bonnie & Clyde) directed and choreographed the award-winning Deaf West Theatre production of Big River (Tony and Drama Desk nominations, Best Revival; Drama Desk nomination for Best Director of a Musical; Ovation and L.A. Drama Critics Circle awards for Direction and Choreography). Last season, he directed and choreographed the Deaf West Theatre production of Pippin at the Mark Taper Forum. He provided the musical staging for the hit Broadway musical Grey Gardens and developed the first original ASL musical, Sleeping Beauty Wakes, at the Kirk Douglas Theater. Tony Award-winner Joe Hardy and Jeff co-directed Himself & Nora at The Old Globe. He directed and choreographed the 1994 Broadway revival of Grease! (Tony nomination, Best Choreography) and co-choreographed the Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun (Tony Award, Best Revival). His Broadway directing debut was Tommy Tune Tonight, and his collaboration with Mr. Tune led to the 1991 Tony for Best Choreography for the Will Rogers Follies. Audiences both in the United States and throughout the world have seen Jeff's world premiere production of Disney's High School Musical: On Tour. He is an Associate Artist at Ford's Theatre.

Memphis, which played to sold-out houses at La Jolla Playhouse last fall and won the San Diego Critics' Circle "Outstanding New Musical" Award, features music and lyrics by Bon Jovi keyboardist and founding member David Bryan, and book and additional lyrics by Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, All Shook Up). This acclaimed new musical follows the life of the first white deejay who dared to play black music at the center of the radio dial. Taking place on legendary Beale Street in the early 1950s, this dynamic show explores the passion and roots of rock 'n' roll music, featuring an original gospel, rhythm & blues and early rock score fused with a contemporary sensibility.

The nationally acclaimed, Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is known for its tradition of creating the most exciting and adventurous new work in regional theatre. The Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, and is considered one of the most well-respected not-for-profit theatres in the country. Numerous Playhouse productions have moved to Broadway, including Big River, The Who's Tommy, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Walk in the Woods, Dracula, Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Jersey Boys, The Farnsworth Invention and 33 Variations. Located on the UC San Diego campus, La Jolla Playhouse is made up of three primary performance spaces: the Mandell Weiss Theatre, the Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre, and the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for La Jolla Playhouse, a state-of-the-Art Theatre complex which features the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre.