It has been performed on the world’s biggest stages in Broadway, the West End and beyond and now Bonnie and Clyde: The Musical comes to the intimate setting of Birmingham’s Old Joint Stock Theatre.

The show adapts brilliantly to a smaller setting because at its heart lie two love stories - between Bonnie and Clyde and between Clyde’s brother Buck and his wife Blanche. And by concentrating on this rather than the big shoot outs and dramatic heists, this production ensures we keep these people at the centre of the tale.

With an initial creative team comprising Frank Wildhorn on the music, Don Black on lyrics and Ivan Menchell on story, Bonnie and Clyde: The Musical is a gift of a show. It has everything - fabulous characters who you’re torn between condemning and secretly liking, a plethora of human emotions and divided loyalties, an action-packed story based in real life and a wonderful soundtrack filled with powerful songs which stay with you.

Directed by Emily Susanne Lloyd, this production replaces grand sets and sweeping American vistas with bringing the two rows of audience so close to the action we are at times inches away, pulling us all into the story. Taking place on a traverse stage between two facing audiences, the performers make the most of this closeness, waving guns at audience members or singing directly to them.

Samuel Murray gives us a multi-faceted Clyde who glories in the notoriety of being a gangster but is also devoted to Bonnie and to his brother. We see him vulnerable when he is abused in prison and we hear how his family have been exploited again and again, thereby giving him some apparent excuse for at least the thieving if not the orgy of killing which follows.

India Lily Cooper’s Bonnie is a dreamer who longs for fame but isn’t sophisticated enough to be able to distinguish between fame and infamy. Her love for Clyde is pretty much obsessive so that she is unable to pull away from him. Cooper ensures we understand this is her driver – and her solo Dyin’ Ain’t So Bad is a highlight of the show.

Faye Campbell’s Blanche is a great contrast to Bonnie. A God-fearing woman, she begs her husband to do the right thing and just wants a normal family. Faye’s Blanche brings both humour and a brand of sassiness to the show but we also see her desperation to keep her husband out of trouble with her beautiful rendition of the song That’s What You Call a Dream.

Campbell and Cooper’s poignant duet You Love Who You Love shows that while initially the two women appear very different, in fact they share one fatal flaw.

Killian Thomas Lefevre, who was last in Birmingham playing Connor Murphy in Dear Evan Hansen, gives us a torn Buck who vacillates between loyalty to his wife and to his brother. And Davis Weaver’s Sheriff Ted Hinton is equally pulled in two different directions – between being the lawman who will hunt down the robbers and being Bonnie’s childhood friend and would-be sweetheart.

Beau Eaton and Evie Pavlovs bring a touch of nostalgia with their roles as the young Clyde and Bonnie. And the leads are given brilliant support by the rest of the cast as they swap and change between being family members, bank customers, police officers and other roles. All give plenty of energy and realism to their roles.

George P Martin’s set keeps the action central with a boardwalk base and shattered glass imagery, a constant reminder of what is to come. There’s also some great double-upping of the bed when it becomes the iconic Bonnie and Clyde car. The set is hugely helped by Joanne Marshall’s lighting which picks out the action, keeping us all focussed throughout.

Full marks to movement director Ellie Begley for managing to keep tight but lively choreography across a cast of 14 in the narrowest of stage spaces.

The score is given life by a team of musicians who are offstage but visible on a small screen at the end of the stage which is a nice touch. The show might benefit though from slightly lower levels as at times it feels like everyone is singing their hearts out and yet are still difficult to hear over the music.

This is a small issue in a thoroughly enjoyable production though. Bonnie and Clyde is a brave choice for a small venue who could easily have shied away from a musical which at first glance is so epic in scale. By bringing it into such a small space it gives the musical the added dimension of such great proximity to the action and the characters that it would be hard not to be carried away by their story.

Five stars

Reviewed by Diane Parkes at the Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham, on Sunday 5 October. Bonnie & Clyde The Musical continues to show at the venue until Sunday 2 November.