In 'Wonder' the musical, young actors with facial differences find their
voices onstage
[February 24, 2026]
By MICHAEL CASEY
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — When Max Voehl auditioned to play the lead role
in the musical “Wonder,” he sensed he was playing a version of himself
onstage.
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 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 explores Auggie’s journey from the perspectives of
those closest to him — his sister Via, who feels overshadowed by her
brother, and his parents, who wrestle with how to protect him while
helping him grow more independent.
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,”
“Macbeth In Stride" and "We Live in Cairo,” said 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 Joffe, a consultant on the project who is a retired therapist
and learning disability specialist, 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.”
Magar said they never considered casting anyone without a facial
difference for the role of Auggie.
“While there were discussions about the practical realities of casting
should the show have commercial life in the coming years, we never
considered casting an actor without facial difference,” she said in a
statement.
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Actor Nathan Salstone, left, who portrays the imaginary friend of
the main character Auggie, right, played by Max Voehl, during the
musical "Wonder" at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge,
Mass., Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
 In the end, the production found
Voehl and McNally for the part of Auggie. Magar described them as
“two extraordinary actors.”
Joffe, who only watched staged run-throughs of the show due his
medical challenges, admitted he was “moved to tears." “I was
basically an emotional basket case,” he said. “I feel that I was
watching my life in front of me.”
First night jitters
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.”
___
An earlier version of this story had an incorrect spelling of
Matthew Joffe’s last name.
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