"Bonnie and Clyde" return and return and . . .

Before dying at age 25 in a hail of lawmen's bullets, Clyde Barrow had achieved the fame he sought -- and he had killed 14 men, directly or indirectly. His loyal moll, Bonnie Parker, may never have shot anyone. But as one of their cohorts in the Barrow gang said, "She was one hell of a loader."

The notorious 1930s bank robbers were transformed into mythical outlaw lovers by director Arthur Penn, actor-producer Warren Beatty and screenwriters David Newman and Robert Benton in the 1967 film "Bonnie and Clyde." That myth has yet to be dispelled, despite the revisionism of time and two recent books about the couple's 1932-34 crime spree.

Now a new musical, "Bonnie & Clyde," is in previews at La Jolla Playhouse and director Jeff Calhoun says of the show, "Ironically, this may be the most truthful account yet of the lives of Bonnie and Clyde, even though it is a musical."