By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN? Saturday 5 April, opens 10 April and runs through 17 May 2025 RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including 20-minute interval)

The triple Oscar-winning 1969 film about the unlikely friendship between a male prostitute and his business partner played by Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman is perhaps not the 1st candidate to spring to mind to become a stage musical.

• Read on for reasons including how you should see this if you’re a fan of Bowden’s because he displayed some serious musical theatre muscle

But the good news is that the music and lyrics are by 3-time Ivor Novello Award-winning composer Francis ‘Eg’ White who’s written for pop acts including Adele, Florence and the Machine and Will Young.

We’re also expecting new musical The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button to win the Olivier for best new musical this weekend and it was at this venue where it began its run into the West End.

Joe Buck is a young man desperate to escape his dead-end past and arrives in New York dressed as a cowboy with 244 dollars in his pocket and an ambition to trade on his looks to find his fortune.

He’s played here by Paul Jacob French who quickly whips off his shirt to display his physical credentials for this role and finds friendship with Rico ‘Ratso’ Rizzo, given life by Max Bowden from EastEnders, who is not in the best of health but acts as manager or fixer for his midnight cowboy.

Best song is Don’t Give Up On Me Now (above), sung by both main characters, and is memorable. During the Act 2 reprise we can hear sobs from the audience as it works its magic in explaining an unusual relationship with a shared goal of working together to make it in a city when the odds are stacked against them.

French and Bowden are strong live singers and we believed their friendship and how combining their different talents could give them a shot at success even when everything appeared to be conspiring against them.

We also enjoyed the nod to Everybody’s Talkin’ from the film, which won a Grammy for Nilsson in its original form and we remember better covered by The Beautiful South, in the new musical’s prologue as Buck’s journey is decided upon.

Written by Bryony Lavery (Frozen, Theatre Royal Haymarket), there’s a lot of both straight and gay simulated sex acts here which felt a little awkward in the context of a musical but were perhaps inevitable given the subject matter.

We hadn’t heard most of the songs until our arrival in the theatre and were hoping for a little more from them especially given that their author has written some of our favourite pop numbers.

Definitely see this if you’re a fan of Bowden’s because he displayed some serious musical theatre muscle which we weren’t expecting and this had a moving conclusion to its story of 2 people working together to make the best of the limited cards they’ve been dealt in tough surroundings.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Southwark Playhouse Tickets 
• Have you seen a Southwark Playhouse show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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