Review Roundup: TO WONG FOO THE MUSICAL Opens at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester

Reviews are in for TO WONG FOO THE MUSICAL, which is currently running for a limited 9-week engagement at Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester through 17 December.

TO WONG FOO THE MUSICAL stars Peter Caulfield as Vida Boheme, Gregory Haney as Noxeema Jackson and Pablo Gómez Jones as Chichi Rodríguez, with Carolyn Maitland Duncan Burt, Alexander Kranz, Arthur Boan, Ayesha Maynard, Emily Ooi, Jermaine Woods, Lee Harris, Natalie Day, Scott Hunter, Susie Fenwick, Samantha Bingley, Theo Maddix, Jamil Abbasi and Megan Davies-Truin.

TO WONG FOO THE MUSICAL is based on the 1995 cult-classic film, To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar, written by multiple Tony Award nominee Douglas Carter Beane and featuring an all-star cast including Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, John Leguizamo, Stockard Channing, Robin Williams and RuPaul. 

The new musical has a book and direction by original film screenplay writer Douglas Carter Beane, with music and lyrics by Lewis Flinn and casting by Sarah Leung CDG. Artwork by Feast Creative.

TO WONG FOO THE MUSICAL stars Peter Caulfield (Tammy Faye, Almeida Theatre; Jesus Christ Superstar, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) as Vida Boheme, Gregory Haney (TINA – The Tina Turner Musical, West End; Hamilton, Original Broadway Production) as Noxeema Jackson and Pablo Gómez Jones (In Dreams, Leeds Playhouse; Les Misérables, Mexico City) as Chichi Rodríguez. 

Let's see what the critics had to say...

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Chris Wiegand, The Guardian: The result is a rose-tinted fantasia that, if almost devoid of tension, offers an antidote to America’s modern drag bans and wittily dissolves the division between “people like you” and “people like us”. The central trio are superb singers (especially Caulfield’s upper range) and the combined pizzazz of, among others, Gregory Gale (costumes), Bobbie Zlotnik (wigs) and Jack Weir (lighting) means you’ll need sunglasses in the front row.

Mark Brown, Telegraph: The show (which is directed by Beane himself) is a bold, camp, unapologetically sentimental success from its dazzling New York City cabaret opening to its feelgood fantasia ending in small-town America. Peter Caulfield (Vida Boheme), Gregory Haney (Noxeema Jackson) and Pablo Goméz Jones (Chi Chi Rodriguez) hit the ball out of the proverbial park, giving vivid, emotionally engaged performances as the drag queens who, improbably, win over the hearts and minds of the people of the ultra-conservative, one-street town of Snydersville.

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