Midnight Cowboy is a classic 1969 Oscar winning film. 56 years later a musical stage version of if has just opened. Was it necessary to turn the film into a stage musical? Not at all.
The film starred Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman as two drifters trying to ecke out a living in NYC. For the stage version, Paul Jacob French is in the Voight role as Joe Buck, newly arrived in the big apple in order to seek a fortune. Max Bowden plays Rico ‘Ratso’ Rizzo – the role a young Dustin Hoffman played – a man with lots of demons and declining health. They meet each other at a bar and pair up to do whatever it takes to achieve their dreams: Bucks dream is to become very rich while Rizzo’s dream is to go to Florida. But first they need money fast just pay their day to day expenses. Buck tries to hustle a high society woman but he ends up giving her money for taxi fare. He then meets a young man who promises him $27 for a quickie but in the end the young man doesn’t have any money – just his books and a sentimental watch. So Rizzo takes charge and gets ‘work’ for Buck, anything and everything – for cash. It’s all a very desperate situation as Rizzo’s health is going downhill and Bucks dream of making a fortune continues to disappear.
Set all the above to music and what you have is a bit of a mess. You can’t blame the actors – they are, for the most part, very good. French is killing it both in the acting and the singing, and Bowden is very believable in a role very different to his previous day job in ‘Eastenders.’
But the rest of the cast come off as lifeless characters with no depth, and the scene with Buck and the high society woman is laughably choreographed (by Nick Winston – who also directed) and disappointingly sets the tone for the rest of the show. Midnight Cowboy never should’ve have been set to music – it would’ve worked better as a straight play. But too late for that. Even though the second half gets better, and the emotional drama starts to kick in, it’s all a little bit too late.
MIDNIGHT COWBOY – A NEW MUSICAL opens at Southwark Playhouse Elephant on 4 April 2025 and runs until 17 May 2025.