“The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton is a staple of middle and high school reading lists nationwide. Now, its musical adaptation has won the recognition it deserves, earning the Best New Musical Tony Award over the summer.
Most of the students and many teachers at Potomac Falls have read “The Outsiders” at one point or another. It has consistently been a part of the eighth-grade English curriculum at River Bend Middle School, from which most PFHS students have graduated, and has been standard reading in other schools for decades.
The coming-of-age story, which takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1967, is about 14-year-old orphan Ponyboy Curtis who lives with his two older brothers, Darry and Sodapop. The three brothers belong to a gang of working-class teenage boys known as the Greasers, who are starkly divided from their upper-class rivals dubbed the “Socs” (short for Socials).
Ponyboy navigates hardship, rights and wrongs, and the feeling of being an outsider throughout the story. However, despite the raw, gritty, and heartbreaking events of the story, Ponyboy always has someone by his side, whether it be his fearful best friend Johnny Cade, the resourceful Dallas Winston with a criminal record, his brothers, or the other members of the gang.
Aside from being a classic, entertaining story that is heart-wrenching at times and heartwarming at others, “The Outsiders” conveys important messages about social class, difference, loyalty, friendship, brotherhood, and belonging while being extremely relatable to teenagers, which is largely why it is so noteworthy that it has been adapted into a successful Broadway musical.
In February 2023, the musical adaptation of “The Outsiders,” produced by none other than star actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian Angelina Jolie, premiered at La Jolla Playhouse in California. Jolie worked with her then-15-year-old daughter Vivienne to produce the musical. In an interview with Deadline, Jolie said that watching the musical with her daughter for the first time was a “very different experience of understanding, of how this is having a significant effect on her as a young person right now, and she’s communicating something to me, and that is the power of this material.”
The story had previously been made into an iconic Francis Ford Coppola film featuring star actors such as Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, and Ralph Macchio. It had also been adapted into a brief television series and a play. However, this was its first time being presented to a large audience in a musical format.
It was a smashing success, so much so that it traveled across the country to New York City to make its Broadway debut at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater in 2024.
The beautifully staged musical features a folk-rock music score, a blazing onstage fire using the real element, an expertly choreographed rainy, climactic rumble fight scene that will have viewers on the edge of their seats, and much more. The actors, despite “The Outsiders” being a debut Broadway performance for many of them, deliver performances that feel straight from the soul.
Three actors in particular- Brody Grant as Ponyboy, Sky Lakota Lynch as Johnny Cade, and Joshua Boone as Dallas Winston- were nominated for Tony awards for their respective performances.
While none of these three actors won the Tony they had been nominated for, “The Outsiders,” which had been nominated for twelve Tonys, ended up winning four Tony awards on June 15, 2024, including the prestigious Best Musical award, which is a testament to the musical’s excellence and success.
The significance of this lies in the fact that the story of “The Outsiders” is now being widely talked about. People are recognizing its importance (especially the youth, to whom the story is arguably the most influential). Those who have never read the book or watched the movie are now picking up their copies and their remotes to see what the fanfare is all about. “The Outsiders” is also enabling nonreaders to finally enjoy reading and to be moved by what they read.
Brody Grant (Ponyboy), in an interview with Vanity Teen, said, “It was the first book I was genuinely invested in. I remember sitting on the floor of my science building and cracking open the book and sort of having a spiritual connection to it. I just understood who these brothers were. Sometimes moments in life stick with you and you can’t know why until you’re suddenly making the Broadway adaptation of the story that moved you.”
Additionally, Danya Taymor, the musical’s director, said in an interview with KPBS, “.. Part of what makes ‘The Outsiders’ so special, is that when you read it, you can project yourself onto it.” This is an accurate representation of the story. It acts not only as a window into the lives of underprivileged youth who face unfair prejudice and have to fight to belong, but it is also a mirror in which all readers are guaranteed to see aspects of themselves.
What it all boils down to is that “The Outsiders” is a powerful story that everyone should consume, whether it be through the book, movie, or new musical. Now is the perfect time to do so because of the musical adaptation’s recent success and recognition.
If you find yourself in New York City with the time and money to spare, I highly recommend heading to the Jacobs Theater to be transported to Tulsa, 1967. It may well change your life.