Big media companies have long since figured out that they can extend the profitability of their film assets by turning them into stage shows. Disney alone has recycled properties from Beauty and the Beast to Aladdin. We’ve seen theatricalizations of Kinky Boots and Shrek, School of Rock and Once. Hairspray and The Producers both started out as movies, transmuted into musicals, and then morphed back into movies. A scored version of Groundhog Day will premiere at London’s Old Vic this year.
Both onscreen and in the book, Midnight Cowboy is the tale of Joe Buck, dim bulb and lost soul, who leaves the American southwest to make his fortune as a cowboy gigolo in New York City—where, he reasons, rich ladies will pay high prices for sex because all the local guys are “tutti-fruities.” Needless to say, things don’t go as planned. Joe’s first big-city assignation actually loses him money, and it’s mostly downhill from there, until he finds himself hanging out in Times Square among the other Marlboro Man hustlers, getting blown for pay in sticky-floor porn houses.
Zach Livingston has his strong moments as Joe, as does Adam Marcantoni as Ratso (though he seems awfully clean for a man living inches from the street). But the really vivid performances belong to supporting cast members—particularly Megan DeLay, Patrick Blashill, Jack Miggins, and Heather Smith—in multiple roles. v
Through 4/10: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 4 PM, Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood, 773-761-4477, lifelinetheatre.com, $40.
