Good thing Angelina Jolie listened to an urgent recommendation from her daughter, Vivienne: The Oscar-winning actress just took home her first Tony for The Outsiders: A New Musical.
Jolie took the stage Sunday at the Tony Awards ceremony with her 15-year-old daughter, who was the one who encouraged to see a staging of the musical in La Jolla, CA. Vivienne also contributed notes on the Broadway staging of the musical, as did Jolie.
Producer Matthew Rego gave a specific shout-out to Jolie when he accepted the Tony. He also name checked The Outsiders author S.E. Hinton, who was in the audience. Set in Tulsa in 1967, The Outsiders is the story of 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis, his two brothers and best friend Johnny – the Greasers – as they struggle to get by and stand tall against the affluent rival group the Socs.
“Susie Hinton wrote The Outsiders 60 years ago and she has received accolades ever since. But she often says that she still gets overwhelmed when told that The Outsiders changed someone’s life because she’ll say, who might have changed anyone’s life? It’s the book. It’s not the author. It’s the message, not the messenger. Well Susie, I’m here to tell you that your story and its eternal message of love and family and staying gold has forever changed all of our lives. We love you.”
In a recent discussion with Deadline, Jolie explained how she first became involved with the musical.
“My daughter Viv loves theater. She appreciates all theater but she certainly knows what she feels close to and what she responds to. She went to see The Outsiders at La Jolla about five times and was telling me about it, and I had read the book, and I’d seen the film years ago. Then she asked me to come see it with her, and I thought it was just a…you know, Danya speaks of how important it is to teenagers, how it was written by somebody who’s the age of my daughter, right? So, really, as a mother, as a person, I was watching it, but I was really watching the effect it was having on my young daughter and what she was telling me about herself, and I was learning what about it was important to her and why it connected so deeply to her.”
“So, it 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, which was in really good shape even by then,” Jolie continued. “And then I had the privilege of watching everyone work over this last year to make it into what it is, and Vivienne has been there the whole way.”
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