by If Broadway, because of the same risk-averse pressures as Hollywood, has to keep going through the library to adapt more and more touchstones of the past, it could be worse than The Outsiders . SE Hinton’s bestselling novel for young adults has been a staple of middle and high school English classes for over half a century for a reason. Although the once cutting-edge, controversial subject matter of 1967 – violence, addiction, depression, a realistic depiction of socio-economic struggle, endless cigarettes – no longer feels risqué in 2024, the novel created a certain angst no time for bottled up teenagers. Hinton’s book, written when she was just 16 and published as a college freshman, has long resonated with young audiences who felt disenfranchised, disenfranchised, they have doubts or are lost in the turmoil of emotions.
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The Broadway musical version, with a book by Adam Rapp and Justin Levine, tries very hard to tap into the vein of uncut frustration and pent-up frustration, with a light touch of Americana sound and a heavy emphasis on small-town dreams. Everyone involved, including executive producer Angelina Jolie, seems to be approaching the project in good faith with the legacy of the original film (and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film), with a genuine curiosity for something new (and lyrical) thrown out of the suppressed teenagers and now old-timey slang. (Jolie reportedly took part at the suggestion of her 15-year-old daughter Vivienne, who saw the musical in its first run at the La Jolla Playhouse.) It’s the platonic ideal of a retro-classic rebooted for Broadway. , which is more or less attractive. audience both young and old (my show was split between boomers and kids) but it wasn’t overpowering, recognizable but not overpowering, sincere and competent but not over the top.
As in the novel, the show, directed by Danya Taymor (Pass Over), is narrated by Ponyboy Curtis (an attractive Brody Grant), a bright 14-year-old boy who dreams of leaving 1967 Tulsa and escapes his part troubles through books and movies. like Cool Hand Luke (the cavernous set, designed by the AMP collective, successfully doubles as a giant projection screen on various occasions, with projection design by Hana S Kim). In the hazy, soulful song – the music and lyrics of the Levine duo and Americana Jamestown Revival bring back standard tunes with folk and country pop – Ponyboy conveys his state of disorientation. His parents were killed in a car accident; his older brother Darrel (Brent Comer) works long, manly hours to keep the family afloat (and has tons of songs to express his frustrations, justice for the older sisters!); his handsome middle brother Sodapop (Jason Schmidt) is heartbroken and caught up with a local gang of working-class kids called the Greasers, led by a lone wolf from out of town named Dallas Winston (Joshua Boone).
The Greasers have a vicious rivalry with the more affluent cross-town “Socs” (as in “socials”), who are “building up the west side while the east side is falling apart”, as Grant sings, who a rich and soulful voice, especially in the quieter moments. Brutal clique sarcasm is an old story, not much more specific here: the Greasers and the Socs hate each other, but Ponyboy bonds with queen bee Cherry Valance (Emma Pittman) driving within the gang over their mutual estrangement; when their respective groups find out, terrible violence ensues, driving a reluctant Ponyboy and his best friend Johnny Cade (Sky Lakota-Lynch) out of town.
Although it is a classic book in its own right, the drive-dance, the boys’ mini-competitions and rumbles remain in the shadow of classic musicals such as Grease and West Side Story, even if Taymor tries to differentiate it with sharper, more heroic music. spins on the violence. The moments from which you can come back – concussion, punch, death – done in strobe-lit slow motion, flashbacks and passages rather than scenes. (The Outsiders also reminds us: is there any sound more significant than the sound of an incoming train?) You can see, in the sharp and staccato flashes of lights of the designer Brian MacDevitt, a great fight choreography by the brothers Rick and Jeff Kuperman , and more. a modern understanding of how trauma destroys memory, how violence destroys all it touches.
The Outsiders, one eye on the past and another eye on the present, also strikes a delicate balance on race – it’s not too expensive in its casting (Coppola’s film is clearly working-class white), but nor is it didactic. The regret of Johnny Cade’s sweater, nervous awareness (Lakota-Lynch is of Native American descent) and Dallas’ nostalgia for being persecuted wherever he goes allows the audience to fill in the rest. As well as the minimalist industrial set of rafters, scaffolding and wooden planks, the skeletons of the projections – a drive-in movie theater, a billboard, an abandoned church where Ponyboy and Johnny hide.
Hinton had a flair for melodrama; the extremes of teenage emotion are still visible through the choices of the story, even in such a slick and generally by-the-numbers production. Musically, The Outsiders are sometimes too sad, too sad, sometimes strangely situational, and always feeling in debt to something more. It is, I think, the classic feel, made up for the moment.
