In 'Wonder' the musical, young actors with facial differences find their voices onstage

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — When Max Voehl auditioned to play a young boy in the musical “Wonder,” he sensed he was playing a version of himself on stage.

Voehl, who was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, has endured multiple surgeries like Auggie Pullman — 13 to Auggie's 28. The 12-year-old from Utah also has been bullied, much like Auggie, who is targeted over his rare genetic condition known as Treacher Collins syndrome, which causes underdeveloped facial bones and tissue.

“Channeling Auggie on stage is actually pretty easy for me because I have felt the emotions he has felt, and I have gone through what he has gone through,” Voehl said after a matinee performance at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University. Voehl, who alternates the role of Auggie with Garrett McNally, who has Treacher Collins syndrome, called the experience “pure joy.”

Popular book becomes musical

Adapted from the R.J. Palacio’s 2012 young adult novel, “Wonder” is a story about the power of kindness and resilience. It revolves around 10-year-old Auggie, who lives in New York and is attending school for the first time after years of being homeschooled. The book was also adapted into a popular film in 2017 starring Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson as Auggie's parents.

Much of the story is about Auggie's year at school, where the science whiz and “Star Wars” fan initially endures stares from fellow students and uncomfortable questions about his face. He considers dropping out of school at one point but, thanks to a few friends and his family, perseveres and is awarded a medal at graduation for his strength and courage.

The musical also considers Auggie's experience from the perspective of those around him, including his sister Via who feels overshadowed by her brother and the struggle of his parents to both protect Auggie and give him greater independence. There's also Jack, who becomes Auggie's best friend only to betray him to score points with popular kids. He ends up reconciling with Auggie, choosing to do his science project with him rather than the school bully.

A softer world

Director Taibi Magar encountered “Wonder” during the height of the pandemic in 2021 when she wasn't sure theater would return. Magar was offered a proposal to turn “Wonder” into a musical and came to appreciate how the story shows people a way to live that is “a little softer and a little kinder.”

“I was pretty sad and the world was feeling really cold and mean,” Magar, who earlier directed “Night Side Songs; The Half-God of Rainfall” and “Macbeth In Stride; We Live in Cairo,” at the theater. “Then I got a phone call from my agent to take a look at this material, and it just cracked me open.”

One of the early challenges was finding young actors with facial conditions to portray Auggie. The movie features an actor without any facial condition, who portrayed the boy wearing makeup and prosthetics.

Matthew Joffee, a consultant on the project who is a retired therapist and learning disability specialists, argued the role should go to someone with a facial difference. As someone who has a facial condition known as Moebius syndrome, Joffee feared giving the role to an actor without one risked “alienating” that community.

“They were so desperate to get actors that will be able to play the role. They were willing to consider looking for actors and just making them up, and I put my own foot down,” he said. “The community would be completely outraged to know that an actor with a craniofacial condition wasn’t being used.”

First night jitters

In the end, the production found Voehl and McNally for the part of Auggie, whom Magar described as “two extraordinary actors.”

McNally, a 16-year-old from California who had never acted before, saw the post on a Facebook group for the role and thought it would be fun to audition. He related to Auggie, he said, because of how people look at him “differently” and sometimes don't treat him as “normal” person.

When he got on a Zoom call to learn that he was headed to the Northeast to be in major musical, he was thrilled — but a little anxious that first night.

“I was nervous because I thought I would mess up or get stage fright, but it generally went pretty smoothly, except for that one time where I hit my shin on one of the tables,” McNally said “Other than that, it was a really good show and I was really proud of myself.”

Moms there for support

Sitting beside the new star was his mother Jules McNally, who never doubted her son's potential but was surprised that he was “capable of such dedication and commitment” to the part. As the audiences watches her son, whom she described “as his own unique person,” she hopes the play moves people to act.

“I want people to leave the show taking the things that they felt, the empathy that they experienced,” she said. “I want them to go out into their own communities and do what they need to do to make people feel safe and accepted and welcome.”

Garrett McNally and Voehl also seem to appreciate how the role of Auggie gives them an unexpected platform to change perceptions about those with facial differences.

“I'm making a difference in helping people understand that even though some people may look different or have like a facial difference, we are all in the end the same the on inside,” Voehl said. “It does not matter what we look like because we are all human.”

Young students cheer for Auggie

At one of the last performances, hundreds of screaming school children filled the theater. The show ended a two-month run on Feb. 15. Many, like Dylan Marion, a 14-year-old from Malden, Massachusetts lined up afterward for autographs — getting seven actors to sign a hard copy of the book. Many had read the book in school and were quick to compare the narrative with what they saw on stage.

“I loved it. It was amazing,” said Aili Sparandara, a 10-year-old from a school in Cambridge, whose entire grade read the novel. “It’s nice how he has people out there who can help him. It was a lot of equality. I like it. This book is based on someone with differences that can be shown. It’s not like everybody in every book has to be perfect.”