The opening number in Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” invites audiences to “attend the tale of Sweeney Todd,” which we do, and despite the horrendous bloodshed he causes, we empathize with him because he was so wronged. Who can fail to be moved when Todd realizes the beggar woman he’s just murdered was his wife? It’s much more difficult to empathize with Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, even in the world premiere musical, “Bonnie & Clyde,” playing at La Jolla Playhouse through Dec. 20. The musical’s collaborators face a dilemma similar to Sondheim’s — how to tell a grisly tale in music without adulating and glorifying. But ever since Bonnie and Clyde went on their murderous crime spree in the early 1930s, they have been adulated and glorified, achieving the status of cult heroes, rebels with nothing better to do. Expanding on the myth we find the 1967 film with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, the TV documentary titled “Bonnie & Clyde: The True Story,” a 2010 remake of the film and recent book titled “Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde.” And now they have their very own musical. Ivan Menchell (book), Frank Wildhorn (music), Don Black (lyrics) and Jeff Calhoun (direction and musical staging) charge themselves with making us love or at least empathize with these two young criminals, though the only wrong done them was being born in Texas and coming to majority during the Great Depression. Laura Osnes and Stark Sands, the young Broadway stars that play Bonnie and Clyde, are appealing musically and visually. The buff Sands projects boyish physicality and a kind of innocence. He is best heard playing the ukulele and singing the laid back vocal, “Bonnie,” in Act II. The lithe Osnes, a redhead here, is more the belter in the music department. Her voice is not easy on the ear throughout its entire range, but she is certainly easy on the eyes and convincing as the young woman who gives up her go-nowhere job as a waitress to go on the road with Clyde, whom she finds more exciting than anything in West Dallas. Mare Winningham, who gets a dynamite song titled “The Devil,” poignantly plays Bonnie’s mother. Melissa van der Schyff and Claybourne Elder play her sister-in-law Blanche and brother-in-law Buck, who join the Barrow gang, and Chris Peluso shines vocally as the lawman whose strongest memories of school are days when Bonnie was absent. Also strong vocally are Wayne Duvall as the Sheriff and Michael Lanning as the Preacher. The most memorable songs include Bonnie and Blanche’s “You Love Who You Love,” and Bonnie and Clyde’s “The World Will Remember Us” and “Dyin’ Ain’t So Bad.”  Wildhorn’s music is mostly in the country, gospel and ragtime genre. The gentle ragtime, employed along with silhouette in the show’s denouement, puts one in mind of “Ragtime.” However, Wildhorn being Wildhorn, the composer does include some belted anthemic material, including “God’s Arms Are Always Open,” “These Are What You Call Guns” and “The Long Arm of the Law.” The piece is beautifully staged by Calhoun upon Tobin Ost’s facile set (he does costumes as well), rising and falling rough hewn lumber panels, a few moving set pieces, and an effective series of platforms and ramps. Aaron Rhyne’s projections, Michael Gilliam’s lighting and Brian Ronan’s sound design exemplify the finest stage magic. To everyone’s credit, we are spared the final carnage, but see the news headlines with the full company, living and dead, on stage. It’s a wondrous, solemn moment, much more effective than yet another shootout. John McDaniel, who conducted opening night’s pit orchestra from the piano, provides orchestrations, incidental music and vocal arrangements. Cris O’Bryon is associate music director/pianist and conducts performances following McDaniel’s return to New York. Others in the excellent ensemble are Healy Henderson, Pat Pfiffner, Anthony Smith, Mark Shapiro and Danny Weller. “Bonnie & Clyde” continues at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays and 7 p.m. Sundays (no performance Thanksgiving) at La Jolla Playhouse, UCSD Theatre District, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive. For tickets ($43-$78) and information, call (858) 550-1010 or visit www.lajollaplayhouse.org.