In “The Outsiders,” opening on Broadway tonight, an exciting cast of gifted young performers, a lovely if little-varied folk and country score, and some thrillingly muscular, almost cinematic choreography are all employed to tell a story that’s been told many times before. Rival teenage gangs? Angsty adolescents? Kids who put grease in their hair? It’s hard to avoid comparisons to, among others, “West Side Story” and “Grease.”
But of course the most unavoidable comparison – which is both boost and burden – is to the two landmark works on which “The Outsiders” is directly based.
S.E. Hinton famously wrote her novel about teenagers from Tulsa Oklahoma who divide into Greasers and Socs, when she herself was still a teenager in Tulsa Oklahoma, inspired by what she witnessed in her high school. “The Outsiders,” published in 1967, not only remains a consistent best-seller; it’s not only among the best-selling young adult novels of all time; it’s the book credited with launching the Y.A. genre. It is routinely assigned in middle schools and high schools – but also banned by some schools and libraries because of its depiction of violence, smoking, drinking, foul language and family dysfunction (which surely adds to its popularity.)
The 1983 movie that Francis Ford Coppola made of the book – which he dedicates “to the people who first suggested it be made: Librarian Jo Ellen Misakian and the students of the Lone Star School in Fresno, California” — may be unique in the absolute number of future stars whose careers it helped launch: Tom Cruise before Risky Business, Ralph Macchio before The Karate Kid, Patrick Swayze before Dirty Dancing, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, C. Thomas Howell, Diane Lane, Rob Lowe (I left a few out.)
It can be no coincidence that the promotional photos (on the Playbill cover, on the show’s homepage etc) evoke memories of one of the movie posters.
Both novel and movie have the protection of iconic status; the novel has a niche readership (ages 13 to 18?) The Broadway musical has no such protection, and a skeptical constituency. Yet it presents the story with little alteration. While there are undeniably touching moments in the story, Broadway theatergoers might feel some of the plot dated in its melodrama. “Teen-agers today want to read about teen-agers today,” Susan Hinton wrote in an essay published when she was 19 years old; she’s now 75.
The creative team has made a few changes, most noticeably the demographics of the Greasers. One character is female, a tomboy named Ace (Tilly Evans-Krueger) and several are portrayed by performers of color (while all the performers who portray Socs are white.) This implies racial tensions. But nothing in the lyrics or the dialogue suggest anything other than that class division drives the story, which is centered around, and narrated by, 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis (Brody Grant.)
Ponyboy is an orphan (his parents died in a car crash) who lives with his two older brothers (Brent Cromer and Jason Schmidt) on the East Side, the Greasers’ side of Tulsa, which is falling apart. He is picked on by the Socs. “We call them Socs cause they live like socialites,” Ponyboy sings in “Tulsa ’67,” the first song in the show. The Socs live on the West Side, where:
“The grass is always greener
and the streets are always clean
All the girls are pretty there
And all the guys are mean”
Ponyboy meets the prettiest of the Soc girls, Cherry (Emma Pittman) at the local drive-in, where they feel a connection, in part because they read books, unlike anybody else in their respective circles.
His rapport with Cherry antagonizes the meanest of the Soc guys, Bob (Kevin William Paul), Cherry’s jealous boyfriend. This leads to a series of violent and tragic events, just as in the novel and the movie, that principally involve Ponyboy’s best friend Johnny (Sky Lakota-Lynch), but also the alpha Greaser Dallas (Joshua Boone.)
The story is told with a score by the Texas-born duo Jamestown Revival and Justin Levine, which has a sometimes lilting sometimes hard-charging Southwestern country sound infused with heartfelt harmonies. (Listen to three of the songs on Spotify below, one of which, “Stay Gold,” gorgeously sung by Lakota-Lynch and Brant as Johnny and Ponyboy, has the same title as a completely different song written and performed by Stevie Wonder on the movie’s soundtrack.) Only a few of the songs stand out, and rarely for their lyrics. One exception is “Great Expectations,” where Ponyboy compares his life to the orphan in Charles Dickens’ novel of that title (I hadn’t realized previously how much Ponyboy’s situation dovetails with Pip’s), and includes some literate lyrical phrases. This makes sense for a boy who likes to recite Robert Frost while gazing at the sun rise. But many songs have lyrics that are prosaic; some outright cliches. (Notice the grass is always greener above.) This makes sense for most of the characters, since they’re supposed to be poorly educated, inarticulate young toughs. But it makes the lyrics largely uninteresting. When the creative team tries for cleverness, it feels strained. In “Grease Got A Hold,” the Greasers spell out the word “Grease” with each letter standing for something – e.g. “G is for gettin’ a lick and not givin’ a shit cuz you’re tough on the chin…”
Luckily, the words matter less than they might have because the most outstanding aspect of this musical is the staging – by which I mean primarily the choreography. The set, design (especially the lighting by Brian MacDevitt) and special effects (rain, smoke, fire) allow for, and sometimes enhance, the movement. This encompasses not just the dancing, but the fighting, which at its most arresting, resembles not just slow-motion cinematography but stop-motion animation – performed by the human beings on stage.
In this new iteration of “The Outsiders,” then, the young cast shines as an ensemble, acting, singing and dancing their pants off – or anyway, their shirts off; as in the movie, there’s a pretend-casual display of beefcake.
It’s impossible to predict whether the members of the cast of “The Outsiders” musical will become stars as big as the cast of “The Outsiders” movie. But they look just as sexy in all that denim.
The Outsiders
Bernard B. Jacobs Theater
Running time: 2 and a half hours (including one intermission)
Tickets: $79 to $279
(Check out Broadway Rush and Lottery for Spring 2024 Shows)
Book by Adam Rapp with Justin Levine, music and lyrics by Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay & Zach Chance) and Justin Levine
Directed by Danya Taymor
Music supervision, orchestration & arrangements by Justin Levine, choreography by Rick Kuperman & Jeff Kuperman
Scenography by AMP featuring Tatiana Kahvegian, Costume Design by Sarafina Bush, Lighting Design by Brian MacDevitt, Sound Design by Cody Spencer, Projection Design by Hana S. Kim, Special Effects Design by Jeremy Chernick & Lillis Meeh, Hair & Wig Design by Alberto “Albee” Alvarado, Makeup Design by Tishonna Ferguson, Sound Effects Specialist Taylor Bense, Creative Consultant Jack Viertel. Music Direction & Additional Orchestrations by Matt Hinkley. Casting is by Tara Rubin Casting/Xavier Rubiano, CSA.
Cast: Brody Grant as Ponyboy Curtis, Sky Lakota-Lynch as Johnny Cade, Joshua Boone as Dallas Winston, Brent Comer as Darrel Curtis, Jason Schmidt as Sodapop Curtis, Emma Pittman as Cherry Valance, Daryl Tofa as Two-Bit, Kevin William Paul as Bob and Dan Berry as Paul. The company also includes Jordan Chin, Milena J. Comeau, Barton Cowperthwaite, Tilly Evans-Krueger, Henry Julián Gendron, RJ Higton, Wonza Johnson, Sean Harrison Jones, Maggie Kuntz, Renni Anthony Magee, SarahGrace Mariani, Melody Rose, Josh Strobl, Victor Carrillo Tracey, Trevor Wayne.
Photos by Matthew Murphy
