FIVE QUESTIONS FOR .... JORDAN LUKE GAGE and FRANCES MAYLI McCANN

THE LONDON STARS OF THE WEST END MUSICAL "BONNIE & CLYDE"

(Above: McCann and Gage photographed by Darren Bell)

I wrote earlier here at SES/SUMS IT UP about how impressed I was by the two young stars of Bonne & Clyde when it was playing at the Arts Theatre in London several months ago. It was so successful during that sold-out stand that it has now moved to the Garrick Theatre on the West End where, having received raves again, it continues its scheduled run until May 20th. I had seen this musical when it premiered on Broadway in 2011 and like most Frank Wildhorn musicals it left me a bit exhausted with its march of blaring numbers, a blur of sound, each song more than sort of sounding like the previous one. There is a bombastic quality even to Widlhorn’s ballads, which seem willed into being, not creatively inspired. But in that Arts Theatre production, I was especially taken by how Merle Oberon-lookalike JORDAN LUKE GAGE handled the Wildhorn score. I swooned at Gage’s Clyde - Warren Beatty in the film version set up the paradigm of the character being a machine-gun toting matinee idol - but Gage also touched my heart somehow, this gangly gangster who longs to be grown-up and confuses that longing with a lawless life on the run. Alas, I didn’t see Gage, who grew up in the south of England around Reading, as Romeo in & Juliet, the hit cult musical that only recently closed on the West End and is now having a successful Broadway run. I’m sure he has a built-in audience from having originated that role. But he will certainly expand it starring in this production that is much better than the original Broadway one because out of necessity it initially had to be pared down for the small stage at the Arts Theatre and was done so in brilliant and tasteful ways by director and choreographer Nick Winston, which improved the show. I’m his newest fan, too.

Bonnie is played by the immensely appealing and talented FRANCES MAYLI McCANN, the half-Chinese Scottish musical sensation. Bonnie’s neediness is kneaded into her portrayal but toughens into an anti-heroine who refuses - like the actress herself - to sentimentalize her own longing in the show for fame even if it means she no longer longs for a future. McCann mines the fatalism in being a femme fatale and make us forget all about Faye Dunaway in the film who depended more on her blonde lithe looks to entice us. McCann, dark-haired and shorter, rightly gives short-shift to enticement and enthralls with her smokier looks and with a voice that can soar when needed but soften when one least expects it. She too touched my heart and made me believe in the romanticism of the outlaw life before I was reminded of its tragic trajectories.

Here McCann and Gage are in the rehearsal hall singing their duet “Too Late to Turn Back Now” accompanied by Katy Richardson and filmed for London’s The Theatre Cafe’s YouTube channel.

I talked to the two stars before a performance one night back when they were appearing at the Arts Theatre but never got around to posting the Q and A before that run closed. I knew if I saved it, however, that there would be another chance because I trusted my well-honed theatre instincts and sensed that a production this good and this beloved by its fans would have a further life in a bigger West End theatre. I am so happy for these two remarkable young stars that I was right.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The next FIVE QUESTIONS FOR … will be with EDDIE IZZARD. I am Zooming with her next week before she opens her West End one-woman show based on Great Expectations. She is moving the production into the Garrick Theatre on May 24th after Bonnie & Clyde closes there on the May 20th. But first up - Jordan and Frances.

QUESTION ONE

I just spent the morning in a neighborhood here in London with which I am not yet familiar and was lost for about two hours. I have learned to relax though when I’m lost and believe that I will just get to where I was meant to be going all along. When was the last time you two were lost - either geographically or spiritually?

GAGE

I am always getting lost. I need a map for everything.

McCANN

I am at a loss for words all the time. I get lost trying to remember a word. I’ll come into work here and I’ll go, “Jordan, what is the word for ….”

GAGE

I think it is a post-COVID thing as opposed to COVID itself. I think post-pandemic we are all searching for the right words because we were locked away for so long on our own that a lot of times we have just forgotten how to have conversations or forget things to say to keep a conversation going like before. It’s as if we have reverted to baby brain.

We are all on the spectrum now.

GAGE

Yes.

QUESTION TWO

I don’t mean to be insulting but I’ve noticed that young people today just don’t know about so many cultural references before the invention of the internet or the years before their own births. And yet someone my age wouldn’t get cultural references that you know about. So I guess it’s a balance. But when I was your age we did seem to know about the past more. I don’t think it was that we were more curious exactly but maybe we were mentored better by our elders so it is the fault of my generation for not reaching out to mentor yours more. We’re the selfish ones, not you. We’ve all of us, young and old, surrendered to the internet and The Ease of the One Click: if we need to know something we can just go look it up because omniscience is at our fingertips. It’s not cultural laziness. It’s technological ease. That’s a long way to getting to the next question. Had you seen the film of Bonnie & Clyde before being cast in this show and had you ever heard of Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway?

GAGE

I haven’t seen it deliberately because I didn’t want to be influenced by anything. I’ve seen The Highwaymen which has a narrative wrapped around the Texas Ranger lawmen who were after them, but not that specific one itself, not Bonnie & Clyde.

McCANN

I didn’t know about the movie, but I did know about Bonnie and Clyde since they are referenced so much in pop culture today. And, no, I had never heard of Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

GAGE

Me either.

Jordan, you look like another old-school movie star, Merle Oberon. If you didn’t know who Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were, you certainly don’t know of Merle Oberon.

GAGE

No. But I’m going to Google it. [He Googles it on his phone.] Oh, yes. Yes. Hmm. I can see it around the eyes especially.

Watch her with Laurence Olivier in the 1939 film Wuthering Heights directed by William Wyler. It’s glorious. You have the singular allure - or is it a double one? - of being as dashing as Heathcliff and as beautiful as Cathy. And I mean that as a compliment.

(Above: Merle Oberon)

(Above: Merle Oberon-lookalike Jordan Luke Gage)

QUESTION THREE

It doesn’t shock me that you don’t know Merle Oberon. I have to admit though it does shock me that you guys didn’t know Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. But they are half a century older than you both are and that would be like asking me when I was your age if I knew names of silent screen stars. I didn’t. Hell, I still don’t. When I worked at Vanity Fair, I was hosting a table at our Oscar party during its dinner portion and Faye was at my table. There was lots of chatter at the table during the ceremony which we screened on large screen televisions at Morton’s where the party was then held. Faye at one point banged on the table almost overturning the wine goblets and told us all in her Dunaway high dudgeon: “Do be quiet!!!!” I am curious about musical actors of your brilliance. I’m sure as children or teenagers you had a hunger to sing and perform, and did so a lot without prompting. Still do maybe. Has anyone ever told you “do be quiet”?

GAGE

Hmm. That’s interesting. I think when I was at school I was definitely told a lot to be quiet because I wasn’t necessarily concentrating on the subjects they were teaching. I wasn’t into the academic subjects. I was a bit of the class clown and always being told to shut up which is, in turn, why I went into this industry.

McCANN

Yes. When I was in school and in college I was always told to stop talking so much because I would just be carrying on and having a laugh. I grew up training to be a performer since I was ten and I think part of that is that you are very well disciplined as well. [Laughing] But actually being loud is a good thing for projection in a theatre.

GAGE

Yeah, it is the one industry in which you can be praised for not being too quiet.

QUESTION FOUR

You are both brilliant in these roles and part of that brilliance is not just your musical talent and singing voices but also your ability as actors to be alluring while playing the darkness in the roles. Bonnie and Clyde longed to be known and famous more than they longed to be good. I have been interviewing actors for decades now and I can tell you that some of them long to be famous more than they long to be good as well. Do you find yourself in this industry falling into that trap?

GAGE

I don’t know about that as a performer. For me personally I would much rather be known for being nice and being kind than to be trampling on people to reach stardom or anything. That is not what I have in mind for myself.

McCANN

And that kind of ambition will only get you so far anyway in this industry because people talk.

GAGE

And there is no reason why you can’t be both, why you can’t be good and be successful.

You’re both still so innocent.

[We all laugh.]

McCANN

I'd just rather be good also because you can trust you’re going to continue to work because you’ve got the talent.

GAGE

She’s right.

QUESTION FIVE

You mentioned earlier, Jordan, when we were talking [this is an edited version of our conversation] that you had loved watching Heartstopper on Netflix, the gay romance set in a British high school. You are openly gay. Was that a hard decision for you to make as an actor?

Not so much. I have always been open with the people I know in my life. It has only been in the last few years that I have become more public with it.

I would assume because of your run as Romeo in & Juliet that you have a fan base of young girls.

GAGE

I do. That’s mostly my fan base. The decision I made to be more open about it is because I was receiving messages from young people who were in the LGBTQ+ community how important it was to them to see somebody onstage who represented them. So I thought maybe I should be more public so more people know about it.

And, Frances, are you an ally or are you a lesbian?

[Gage breaks up laughing. Frances looks a bit bemusedly shocked.]

She’s married to a lovely man.

The look on your face, Frances, is priceless.

(Above: McCann and her husband, actor Christopher Chung, at the premiere of the Apple TV series Show Horses in which he plays the role of Roddy Ho.)

But she is an ally, yes. She’s an ally.

Are you secretly a lesbian, Frances?

[Now Frances breaks up laughing.]

You’re only laughing and not saying anything, so that could be interpreted as a yes.

No. No. She’s an ally.

I have friends whom I assume are in the CIA and when I ask them they just laugh as well and don’t really answer, which I take as a yes.

McCANN

[Her laughter finally calming] No. I met my husband when we were both appearing in the cast of Here Lies Love at the National Theatre, the musical about Imelda Marcos. [McCann’s husband is Christopher Chung who appears in Apple TV’s Slow Horses. You can watch them sing one of their many YouTube duets here, this one “A Whole New World” from Aladdin.]

Are you married, Jordan?

GAGE

No. I’m not married. I’m not ready just yet.

You’re both quite charming. Thanks for doing this.

GAGE

It was lovely meeting you.

McCANN

Yes. Thank you for talking with us.