REVIEW | Midnight Cowboy - A New Musical, Southwark Playhouse - Elephant
- Harry Brogan
- Apr 11
- 4 min read
AD | Ticket gifted in exchange of an honest review
Tw/Cw: This production contains partial nudity, flashing lights, blood, smoking, naked flames, scenes depicting physical and sexual assault, plus strong language.
Midnight Cowboy A New Musical makes its world premiere at London's Southwark Playhouse Elephant.
Midnight Cowboy is adapted and based on the James Leo Herlihy novel, it follows Joe Buck (Paul Jacob French) who makes his way to New York, to leave it all behind and get away from his past, while looking for money and fame Joe turns to sex work and meets Rico 'Ratso' Rizzo (Max Bowden), the lost pair come together and do whatever to achieve their dreams, even if it themselves, and turns out New York is not all it seems and requires sacrifice to survive.
Adapted by Bryony Lavery, music and lyrics Francis 'Eg' White and directed and choreographed by Nick Winston.
Directed and choreographed by Nick Winston, Winston's clever direction is engaging to watch, for example Winston does well in this production by showing voices inside Joe's head and this is shown clearly with having members of the cast on a platform behind the sets mirrored backdrop, this is mostly effective at the top of the show where it also feels like Joe is seeing people in a bathroom mirror which gave a tense and gripping start to the show. Winston's in the head moments are carried out throughout the show which give us an understanding to Joe's background. Winston's choreography and direction collide brilliantly using the stage space well during the shows opening number 'New York Bus', but to me sometimes Winston's choreography felt it took away some of the shows intensity at times such as during the number 'We're Only Talking' for me it took away the main focus of the scene. Winston's contemporary choreography had a slight street dance feel at times, which had slick low and high moments which gave a nice addition to a show. Winston's direction was effective in many places throughout the show such as 'Here Come the High' showing the effect of drugs, showing the sex acts in an skilful but also in an appropriate theatrical way. Where it does hit hard the most is the final moments of the show where the dream finally became reality, Winston creates a powerful ending with simple concise direction that delivers a raw and touching ending while also showing the friendship between Joe and Rico 'Ratso' Rizzo. Winston's direction feels simple but also having its complexity, equally Winston intensely shows themes of friendship, intensity and determined to get out in nicely, while also having at times pleasing choreography.
Adapted by Bryony Lavery, Lavery adapts Herlihy's novel nicely, Lavery is aware of the heavy and dark themes and writes them with care. Lavery writes a nice and clear friendship between Joe and Rico 'Ratso' Rizzo, while the overall shows themes are dark, there is some humour. While Lavery writes a good friendship but what unfortunately Lavery doesn't do is be clear enough at times, for example Rico 'Ratso' Rizzo's illness, we knew he was ill but what his illness was wasn't explained and actually we had to come to the conclusion at the end after the show. While also having flaws in act 1's pacing feel slow at times which sometimes resulted in a drop in energy and at times unclear. Lavery writes a touching act 2 ending which has the audience in complete silence, overall the book is intense, touching, with a little sprinkle of humour, but there are areas of improvement around the pacing and clarity.
With music and lyrics by award-winning composer Francis 'Eg' White, this show's music feels a little mixed at times, there's a couple of enjoyable numbers throughout the course of the two acts, such as the opening number previously mentioned, being a likeable number to start on, and 'Good Morning Joe' being a somewhat sweetish simple number but out of 16 numbers the one which stood out to me was 'Don't Give Up On Me Now' at the end of the first act. This number is sublimely written not just lyrically but musically too, and is one of the shows most powerful numbers. But 'Eg' White unfortunately takes a slight turn during 'Blue is the Colour' where it feels like a not needed number, with somewhat feeling like it struggles to have its place. While there's a mixture of numbers here 'Eg' White writes well providing some nice whole cast numbers and powerful solos.
Paul Jacob French is a delight to watch delivering nice vocals and a well rounded character. Having to spend majority of the time on stage, French holds great stage presence throughout the two acts. French's interaction with the other cast members was great, but the highlights was definitely when Joe and Ratso were on stage together.
Former Eastenders star Max Bowden (who plays Rico 'Ratso' Rizzo) surprisingly pleases with outstanding vocals. With Bowden's skilful characterisation being thought out and is moving at the end. Bowden's performance is impressive showing a likeable friendship towards Joe (Paul Jacob French). Definitely a highlight of the show.
Midnight Cowboy is an intense themed musical that takes on subject matters that are sometimes difficult to express through a musical, but they attempted this, in places successfully, in others not so much. With flaws in the direction of the choreography, which impacted the focus of the show, and the adaptation of the novel feeling slow and unclear at times, Midnight Cowboy could be a success but would require work across these elements.
★★★
Midnight Cowboy plays at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant till 17th of May.
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