There are few films more emblematic of late-60s New York than Midnight Cowboy; if you haven’t seen it, you really must! This X-rated film won three Academy Awards and was the only film ever to take home Best Picture. Directed by John Schlesinger, it stars a young Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, who already are very big boots to fill!
Now, more than five decades later, Midnight Cowboy has found its way to the London stage in the form of a musical. You’ll find it not in the West End, but at Southwark Playhouse Elephant—a venue that’s become a reliable incubator for bold, sometimes offbeat, theatrical experiments. It’s an apt setting for a show that dares to take such a beloved, gritty property and reimagine it in song.
What is Midnight Cowboy: The Musical all about?
The plot follows Joe Buck, a wide-eyed Texan who heads to New York City to reinvent himself as a cowboy gigolo for Manhattan’s rich and lonely women. Life, predictably, doesn’t go to plan. Joe quickly finds himself broke, adrift, and tangled up with the limping, street-smart conman Ratso Rizzo. Their unlikely friendship—one forged more in mutual desperation than genuine trust—is the aching centre of this story.
In this adaptation, Paul Jacob French plays Joe with a sincere, somewhat muted, optimistic sense. Max Bowden (a familiar face from EastEnders) takes on Ratso, although, a very much secondary role which lacks the original chemistry and emotional connection.
What’s striking is the visual language. Andrew Exeter’s set design leans toward the abstract—monochrome cityscapes, moving parts, and a dreamlike texture that pulls the story out of its 1960s context and into something more psychological. There are flourishes of psychedelic flair, especially in a trippy party scene that nods to the counterculture era. Costume designer Sophia Pardon, meanwhile, nails the period aesthetic with groovy, retro ensembles that evoke the time without leaning into parody.
What was most jarring was the music. The score was written by Francis “Eg” White, known for his work with Adele and Florence + The Machine, and more often than not, soft rock drifts through the speakers without anchoring character or plot, as the characters burst into song, which doesn’t particularly add to the show’s momentum.
However, Tori Allen-Martin deserves a mention. Playing multiple roles, she is particularly poignant as Cass, a wealthy New Yorker who becomes Joe’s first (failed) client. Her solo, Whatever It Is You’re Doing, is charged and cheeky, capturing the queasy sexual tension that made the original film such a transgressive force.
It is hard to transfer this heavy-hitting storyline to a light-hearted musical, and often the simulated sex scenes, meant to be raw and provocative, veer into awkward territory. The show wants to honour the film’s unflinching portrait of male vulnerability, queer subtext, and the American dream gone sour, but never quite finds the emotional register to do so.
Still, for curious theatregoers seeking something different on their next London night out, Midnight Cowboy offers a moody detour from the West End’s glossy spectacles. It’s flawed, yes—but undeniably intriguing.
Midnight Cowboy: The Musical runs at Southwark Playhouse Elephant, London, until 17 May 2025.
