By Sarah Mills
LONDON (Reuters) – Based on the book and subsequent Academy Award-winning movie, “Midnight Cowboy” is coming to the London theatre next month as a musical.
Sticking true to the plot of James Leo Herlihy’s 1965 novel, the story explores the unlikely friendship between Joe Buck (Paul Jacob French), a troubled young sex worker, and Rico “Ratso” Rizzo (Max Bowden), a homeless and disabled man, who join forces to survive life in New York.
“It’s very dark. It’s about homelessness, about poverty. It’s about trauma, masculine fragility, sexual abuse, loneliness and hope,” director and choreographer Nick Winston said at a press event on Tuesday.
Winston said the show, which has been six years in the making, works as a musical because it’s a “fantastic story”.
“The idea of struggle is timeless …the struggle of trying to reach where you want to go,” said actor Paul Jacob French.
“I think what’s incredibly important about this piece as well is …normalizing the sex working community,” he said, adding it was important to shine a light on those characters and show them as humans.
The 1969 movie adaptation, which won three Oscars, including best picture, starred Jon Voight as Joe Buck and Dustin Hoffman as Ratso.
“It was really important to not just do impressions of what people love already, but show Joe Buck and Ratso… from a new angle…. which I think the music in this musical allows us to do,” French said.
Eg White, who has written songs for artists including Adele and Sam Smith, wrote the music for the show and said a challenge was to make sure the production isn’t depressing.
“It’s tragic at the beginning, tragic in the middle and tragic at the end. …The idea was that the songs themselves ….moments of resignation would be beautiful enough that it’s not just depressing but is beautiful,” White said.
The musical will run from April 4 to May 17 at London’s Southwark Playhouse.
(Reporting by Sarah Mills; Editing by Frances Kerry)
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