Midnight Cowboy given musical makeover

Based on the book and subsequent Academy Award-winning movie, Midnight Cowboy is coming to the London theatre next month as a musical.

- SARAH MILLS

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 last week.