Southwark Playhouse Elephant • 4 Apr - 17 May

Hot on the heals of Scissorhandz, The Southwark Playhouse Elephant is currently the home for a brand new musical version of James Leo Herlihy’s 1965 novel Midnight Cowboy that many will no doubt recall from the classic Oscar winning 1969 film version directed by John Schlesinger and staring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight. This latest version retells the story of a down on his luck Joe Buck who relocates to New York with the intention of changing his fortunes by becoming a hustler, the sexuality of his clients being of little concern as long as his services get paid for. Whilst hooking up for sex becomes a skill the naive Joe Buck quickly becomes accustomed to, getting paid for his services turns out to be an altogether different skillset he appears less able to master. The situation is not helped by him befriending Ricco ‘Ratio’ Rizzo, a conman of notoriously dubious character who, equally down on his luck, is always ready to exploit any situation for his own ill-gotten gains. Despite this, both characters form the unlikeliest of bonds, and when they find New York is proving detrimental to their grand plans, and even survival, they recalibrate, picking-up their precious few belongings with a view to relocate to Florida.

Just like the original film, this new production boasts an equally impressive pedigree, it being directed by Nick Winston, (who was last seen by Jack The Lad directing the incredible ***** star production of Your Lie In April - see www.jacktheladmag.com/theatre-reviews/your-lie-in-april) and with music and lyrics by Francis ‘Eg’ White, (who has been responsible for co writing some of the biggest hits by a seemingly endless list of artists like Adele, Will Young, Duffy, Sam Smith, Kylie Minogue…. The list goes on), everything seemed in place for this to be a sure-fire hit. That same potential was echoed in this intriguing cast, Paul Jacob French seemingly perfectly cast as Joe Buck, (a role made famous by Jon Voight in the film), Eastenders star Max Bowden is seen stepping into Dustin Hoffmans shoes to play Rico ‘Ratso’ Rizzo, and Tori Allen-Martin makes an equally impressive mark on her three roles of Cass, Orange and Juanita. It’s therefore unfortunate that, with so much talent both on and off stage, this production of Midnight Cowboy somehow still managed to fail to live up to the sum of its parts. Equally frustrating is that it’s hard to know exactly why?

The first surprise came almost immediately as despite having Francis ‘Eg’ White on board, and this new production claiming to lean rather more into the original book than the film, the musical opened by reprising not just one, but two iconic pieces of music that will forever be associated with the film, (Harry Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talkin’ and the beautifully haunting harmonica instrumental theme penned by composer John Barry). It’s not that I wasn’t expecting these melodies to make an appearance at some point during the evening, it would have been odd not to do a cheeky throwback to the original, but it seemed a rather strange choice for a brand new musical to set it’s stall out with two such old and well known refrains, especially as there was so much to be enjoyed in the new score, “Don’t Give Up On Me now”, “People Who Hurt People”, and ‘Blue Is The Colour’ being just three of the new composition highlights.

Whilst its true that Paul Jacob French fills Joe Bucks cowboy boots admirably, Max Bowden gives an impressive performance as Rizzo and his increasingly declining health, and Tori Allen-Martin quite frankly lights up the stage whenever she appears, I think my biggest problem with the production can actually be whittled down to its unfortunate hi-tech approach to it’s staging that unfortunately resulted in certain members off the audience having a decidedly low tech experience. Most of the visual scene setting was done via projections on a shiny black two-way mirrored background which was set at the back of the otherwise sparsely populated thrust stage. Whilst being an imaginative approach, the projected images unfortunately had such a narrow field of vision that they all but failed to be perceptible by anyone sitting either to the left or right of the stage. To get the full extent of this visual device you would need to be sitting directly in front of it (choose your tickets wisely), and unfortunately, whilst looking intriguing in the way characters would suddenly appear from behind the screen as the lighting changed, most of the time this backdrop was rendered little more than a monolithic black void when viewed from the side which, considering the equally darkness of the stage and surprising subtle lighting, the actors were left struggling to bring life to the otherwise gloomy atmosphere this resulted in throughout.

Try as they might, the cast also found themselves hampered by the sound quality that resulted in the 4 piece band sounding exceptionally ‘thin’ from the sound system, with neither vocals or musical-backing having sufficient presence to really engage. Whilst I temporarily considered the possibility of this being an acoustically challenging venue, I soon remembered no such issues were noted during Scissorhandz, which I had seen at the same space just weeks earlier. For whatever reason however, acoustically it all just felt a bit ‘polite’, and is no wonder that when this production really did come to life was either during the big ensemble numbers, where the combined vocals of the whole cast really did manage to hit the sweet spot, or likewise in the single piano based ballads, the intimacy of the moment also registering exactly as it should. Sadly these moments would prove themselves to be more the exception than the rule, and with such an otherwise baron stage, both the music and Andrew Exeter’s overall lighting and set design needed to have had a lot more impact in order to lift this seemingly technically impaired production out of the doldrums.

Having rallied for an impressive final number before the intermission, things surprisingly did improve in the second half, most memorably in a well staged party scene, the use of some more inventive, and decidedly more low-tech, physical staging giving a glimpse of what this production could have been, as did an atmospheric scene depicting a harsh New York winter, a skylight and gentle snow flurry being all that was required to suddenly fill the stage with an atmosphere that had been sorely lacking throughout. Unfortunately these highlights only amplified the productions defects and frustratingly hinted at a better production that just seemed unable to find it’s stride. “I’m in a big mess, and I’m going to fuck my way out of it!” Joe Buck declares in a cry of affirmation about the better times he envisages ahead. Whilst this production of Midnight Cowboy doesn’t need to go to quite such extreme lengths to improve itself, there’s definitely quite a bit of fine tuning under the bonnet to create a production that this more than deserves to be.

★★