Review: The Outsiders by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
The Tulsa Race Massacre happened on May 31st and June 1st, 1921. Thirty-five square blocks of the neighborhood known as "Black Wall Street" were destroyed, thirty-nine Black people were killed and more than eight hundred were hospitalized. Approximately six thousand were imprisoned in detention camps. This event cast a long shadow over the city that a sixteen-year-old Susan Eloise Hinton began writing about in 1965. Hers was a world of deep-seated segregation, gang violence, parental abuse, and economic deprivation. The Outsiders novel tells the story of the rivalry between the Greasers and the Socials AKA Socs (pronounced SOH-shiz) and concentrates on fourteen-year-old Ponyboy Michael Curtis. It was inspired by the Guthery family who were neighbors of Hinton. The rival gangs, separated by socioeconomic status, are utterly vicious to one another though all interpretations have been more favorable to the Greasers. Everyone loves an underdog story, and this is one of many in the American Pantheon. There is some distinct irony that the Broadway version of the story is largely attended by Socs.
The story was famously adapted into a Francis Ford Coppola movie which had a veritable who’s who of future stars and superstars including C. Thomas Howell, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, and Diane Lane. The film is both gritty and tender and still stands up today. For this reason there has been some concern among fans about a musical adaptation (as I am sure there were concerns from the fans of the book when they heard about the movie). The film was a financial success that also achieved cult status. Coppola followed it up in 1990 as the executive producer of the Outsiders TV series, a sequel to the events of the movie and book.
The musical version is based more on the book than the other adaptations and has the blessing of Susan Eloise Hinton, but it’s hard to imagine that the aesthetic of the beloved film hasn’t influenced the production. For the musical, a few of the characters were swapped around or given bigger roles but most notable was the inclusion of the new character Ace-Ace, a female member of the Greaser gang. The other major change involves the death of a major character (that plot point I won’t spoil) but it is fair to comment that the update was probably done for PC motivations, though an argument could be made that it did add a touch of symbolism.
The musical was set to premiere in June 2020 but was forestalled by the COVID-19 pandemic. It opened for a short run at the La Jolla Playhouse on February 19, 2023. It reopened on Broadway a year later with Coppola’s The Araca Group joining LaChanze and Angeline Jolie as producers. The production found immediate success, nominated for twelve Tony Awards and snatching four of them including Best Musical, Best Direction, Best Lighting Design, and Best Sound Design. The national tour officially opened, fittingly, in Tulsa on October 7, 2025, where the cast visited The Outsiders House Museum for a little extra inspiration. When the production landed in Austin, they dropped fifty copies of the original book which included commemorative bookmarks at Little Free Libraries across the city. They also arranged for nearly 3,000 students and educators to attend a special school day performance.
But what about the production itself? It was great. Truly entertaining and fast paced with a mélange of classic 1-4-5 rock and roll and country inflected original songs. The simple but familiar plot and the archetypical characters allowed the action to flow fast and loose. Though there were a lot of anachronisms, these were probably entirely unnoticed by the modern audience. A solid performance by an energetic young cast. Many are making their national tour debuts including Summer Stock Austin alum Jordan Williams playing Ponyboy at certain performances.
Most people recall the dark emotional rawness of the film, but none of that is to be found here. More West Side Story than Romeo and Juliet, The Outsiders: A New Musical has music and lyrics by Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay & Zach Chance), an Americana folk duo who set the tone with their clear and catchy melodies and finger-snapping rhythms. The lighting, sound, and special effects designs are excellent, and the audience is completely immersed in the story from start to finish. The production contains many great lines that illustrate the novel’s themes. To paraphrase a few: "We call them Socs because they live like socialites," "We give ourselves a name because we don’t have a lot,’ "stuck between the role of a brother and a father,’"and the pithy ‘I did everything right, but everything went wrong." What Sondheim did for fairy tales with Into the Woods, this current production has done for The Outsiders: removed the teeth but kept the cuddly fur.
The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton
touring company
October 21 - 26, 2025
Bass Concert Hall
