The Outsiders at the Peace Center
The Peace Center welcomed another award-winning musical this week — The Outsiders, the 2024 four-time Tony recipient including Best Musical. As you might expect from a Broadway Best-In-Show show, the production is impressive with dynamic dance and fight choreography, dazzling lighting and visual design, all in support of stirring musical numbers delivered by a cast of versatile young actors adeptly directed by Danya Taymor (who also took home a Tony).
The musical is about the boiling tensions between two rival groups of teenagers in 1967 Tulsa, Oklahoma. Courtesy of our narrator, Ponyboy (tenderly portrayed by Nolan White in the demanding lead role), we are introduced to the conflict through the lens of the Greasers, the poor, working-class kids from the East Side, who are identified by their long, slicked-back hair. They are in constant conflict with the Socs (Socials), the wealthy, popped-collar preppy kids from the West Side with their nice clothes and new cars, led by the blond, broad-chested bully, Bob (the enjoyably detestable Mark Doyle, looking and acting like Cobra Kai’s Johnny Lawrence).
The story is one of my favorites, based on the 1967 novel of the same name by S.E. Hinton. It was a popular read in junior high school: a book about teenagers written by a teenager (Hinton was 19 at the time), and clocking in at just under 200 pages. It is not surprising that the book has seen several adaptations: a cult-classic 1983 film by Francis Ford Coppola, a 1990 Fox TV series that picks up where the novel’s story ends, a stage play adapted by Christopher Sergel that same year, and even a video game that debuted in 2005.
The plot — a classic coming-of-age tale with hints of Romeo and Juliet, i.e. a love interest crossing enemy lines with tragic results — makes great sense that it might be well adapted as a musical (see exhibit A: West Side Story). And the acquired accolades and standing ovation by the opening night on Jan. 27 audience offer irrefutable proof that it has been. But for me, I wish the music in certain moments better matched the moment — both the tense situation and the time period.
The book for this musical adaptation is well written by Adam Rapp and Justin Levine. Even if you strip the production down to just the dialogue, this would still be a very good stage play. But that would be a shame to do so as the music and lyrics skillfully crafted by Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay & Zach Chance) and Justine Levine are both rousing and exquisite.
The second song, “Grease Got a Hold” nicely establishes the rowdy East Side vibe with a roadhouse revival number. A few songs later, “Friday at the Drive-In,” offers a similar feel in capturing the freedom and fun that kids from either side of the track are trying to find once the weekend arrives, a song that sounds like it could be off the Grease soundtrack. Towards the end of the production, as both factions get ready for the big rumble, they sing “Trouble,” a fantastic fight song with an Irish flair that properly points toward trouble. However, it doesn’t feel like a tune from late-’60s Tulsa, but instead something more contemporary that could be heard at a Dropkick Murphys’ concert.
The ballads are best served by our star-crossed lovers, Ponyboy and Cherry Valance (the endearing Emma Hearn, very believable as the better-than-the-rest girl that boys would fight over).Their song together, “I Could Talk To You All Night,” is lovely and lyrical and feels genuinely born out of their meet-cute moment. It makes sense that they would sing when mere words no longer suffice.
Ballads sung by Ponyboy’s older brother, Darrel (the talented Travis Roy Rogers) and best friend, Johnny (the sympathetic Bonale Fambrini) are also beautifully written and sung, but somewhat step outside The Outsiders' gritty aesthetic for me. It’s interesting that the music and lyrics are credited as “based on the novel by S.E. Hinton and Francis Ford Coppola’s Motion Picture,” the latter a film that features a terrific soundtrack with several iconic songs from that era. In hindsight, I may have made the mistake of expecting a new original musical to mimic a movie soundtrack.
This production certainly has the gritty elements right with its handful of fight scenes. The violence is often visceral thanks to the impactful choreography by Rick Kuperman & Jeff Kuperman, in tandem with fight captain Sebastian Martinez, and assistant fight captain Giuseppe Little. The kicks and punches are accentuated by flashes of bright light and fill-in-the-blanks blackouts, brilliantly executed by the lighting designer Brian MacDevitt.
The physicality of the fight scenes bleed nicely into the dance sequences, with it all feeling a little more MMA than your traditional West Side Story dance number.
The set design is satisfying with the wide scaffolded grid serving as many different locations, including the drive-in, the hideout church, and the various broken homes of the Greaser boys. (A car hood situated stage left doubles nicely as a bed in Ponyboy’s house thanks to a quickly thrown covering.) There is ambitious use of brown planks of wood that are frequently lifted and rotated and placed to create settings like the benches at the drive-in, Johnny’s hospital bed, and, when placed over large rolling tires, a convincing visual of the two boys riding the trains out of town. And there's periodic use of projections to texture the scenes, including a recurring clip of Paul Newman, Ponyboy’s favorite actor. Credit for these illuminating elements goes to projection design by Hana S. Kim, and scenography by AMP featuring Tatiana Kahvegian.
The Araca Group's The Outsiders gets many things right in realizing this show, but especially the casting (The TRC Company, Xavier Rubiano, CSA). If you don’t believe me, just ask the young girl sitting next to me who loved the book and told her dad, “I think they did well with the cast.” Like the 1983 film that features C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, and many more, Hinton’s cast of characters is portrayed here by a panoply of talented, attractive young actors — all those mentioned above, plus the shirtless-for-a-reason Corbin Drew Ross as Sodapop, who nicely provided some needed humor as the slightly dim-bulb middle brother.
But the star of the evening for me is South Carolina native Tyler Jordan Wesley in the role of Dallas. With this national tour, Tyler returns to the Peace Center where he saw his first musical, Once on This Island, having attended Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities, no more than a mile down the road. He’s quite convincing in the role of Dally, the Greaser who had done time, and who would have done anything for his friends who he felt were family. He commands the stage with a stature and strength that’s not postured, just genuinely put forth. I couldn’t help but root for him in his end-of-show showdown on the train tracks.
If you like The Outsiders — the book or the movie — you will most likely like this stage musical adaptation, even if it softens some of the hard edges of the original story. And if you like musicals, then you will definitely like what this version brings to town as a show that was considered Broadway's best just a few years back.
The Outsiders is playing at the Peace Center through Feb. 1. For tickets and more information, visit peacecenter.org.
(Photo by Matthew Murphy, courtesy of the Peace Center)
