The musical phenomenon The Outsiders has finally launched its national tour after a successful pre-Broadway run in La Jolla, California, and its Tony Award-winning run as Best Musical on Broadway.
With its quiet yet visceral power, “The Outsiders” takes S.E. Hinton’s beloved and often-taught young adult novel and transforms it into an empathetic tale of brotherly love, overcoming the circumstances you were born into, and finding your place in the world.
The story remains faithfully intact, telling the tale of the introspective Ponyboy Curtis (played opening night by Jordan DeAndre Williams), his brothers Darrel (Travis Roy Rogers) and Sodapop (Jackson Reagin), and his best friend Johnny Cade (Bonale Fambrini).
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Ponyboy is an observer. He watches the world around him, questions why it works the way it does, and hopes for something better. He understands the pain of his best friend, whose abusive father has created a terrified soul who longs to escape but fears for his mother. He feels for his eldest brother, who became a de facto father after their parents’ deaths, even if Ponyboy’s fourteen-year-old brain still won’t quite let him help out more around the house.
Meanwhile, he’s part of a group of guys known as the “greasers,” who come from the other side of the tracks, opposite the Socs (“soashes”) — the richer, privileged crowd who tend to rule the school and look down on the greasers. While Ponyboy understands where he stands in his high school and town’s social hierarchy, he longs for more.
That longing takes him to the movies, a place where he can escape and idolize the strength of the matinee heroes he sometimes dreams of being. One night, it leads him to the drive-in, where he meets Soc Cherry Valance (Emma Hearn), who takes a liking to him when she sees beyond the greaser persona and into his heart and mind.
This doesn’t sit well with the Socs, and soon a fight breaks out. In defending Ponyboy, Johnny kills one of them. The boys go on the run, triggering a sometimes beautiful, sometimes tragic chain of events that alters Ponyboy, his friends, and his family forever.
Many things make “The Outsiders” so special. For one, the music by indie-folk duo Jamestown Revival and Justin Levine is beautiful and deeply empathetic. Adam Rapp’s book remains faithful to the source material. While its original incarnation in La Jolla felt a bit richer, the Broadway and touring version condenses some story points and musical numbers, occasionally making them feel a little more obvious and less nuanced. At times, a number or two could have been cut to tighten the running time, but the score’s beauty transcends any pacing issues.
Songs like “Great Expectations,” “Stay Gold,” and “Hopeless War” are standouts. Greaser leader Dallas (Tyler Jordan Wesley) gets a few explosive numbers of his own with “Run Run Brother” and “Little Brother,” both of which had the audience cheering for more.
The set design is a marvel of simplicity and specificity. What initially looks like a car repair yard easily transforms into a drive-in theater, the Curtis home, a nearby park, and even an abandoned church.
The choreography by the Kuperman Brothers is equally raw and physical, especially during the infamous fight scene in the rain; a stunner of lighting, staging, and movement.
But it’s the actors and their powerful voices that give the show its soul. Williams’ sweet but rich tone is the heart of the production, guiding us through these characters’ lives with a gentle observance that comes through in his voice with purpose and sincerity.
Equally stunning are Rogers, Hearn and Darrey asel, Cherry and Dallas, respectively. Each gets a moment to shine, and there’s a reassuring confidence in knowing every note will be beautifully hit while still carrying honesty and emotion.
Which is truly the heart of “The Outsiders.”
As author S.E. Hinton once said, “Teen-Agers are for real.” And here, their longings, observations, struggles, and tribulations are just that. Real and difficult. Ugly and gorgeous.
People take them seriously because their lives are just as important as those of someone thirty years older. They observe, love, breathe, and live just like everyone else. And in “The Outsiders,” they’re given the chance to stand up and be counted as equals, in pain and love, hardship and success, longing and hope.
That may be why this show has connected with so many people. Maybe it’s nostalgia for a time gone by. A memory of a book read decades ago. Cute boys in tank tops. Songs you want to sing as loudly as you can. Or simply the message to “stay gold.”
Whatever brings you in, “The Outsiders” crosses generations because, underneath the greasers, the Socs, the switchblades and the rumble, it’s ultimately about all of us.
The Outsiders plays the Pantages Theatre through October 18.
For more information and tickets, visit BroadwayinHollywood.com.
