The war between the Greasers and the Socs has erupted at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, where “The Outsiders,” the 2024 Tony winner for best musical, is having its Los Angeles premiere.
This North American touring production preserves most of what was so transfixing about this theatrical adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s landmark young adult novel when it had its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse in 2023.
The musical was rough around the edges at its launch, but its entrancing indie folk-rock score by Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance) and Justin Levine gave voice to the brooding frustrations and aspirations of this divided adolescent community in 1967 Tulsa, Okla. When Ponyboy leads the company in a soaring rendition of “Great Expectations,” the number evokes the haunting lyrical power of “Spring Awakening,” another musical about young hearts yearning to break free from oppressive constraints.
What left the greatest impression in La Jolla, however, was the staging by Danya Taymor, who would go on to win a Tony for her breathtakingly fluid direction. Taymor’s production catalyzes the storytelling, and the dynamic inventiveness of the mise-en-scène is on kinetic display at the Pantages, where a top-notch design team works in perfect coordination.
If only the cast of Thursday’s opening night performance of this North American tour production was as seamless as the staging. The singing is spectacular all around, but the ensemble has a scattershot feel.
There was a significant cast change at the reviewed performance. Ponyboy Curtis was played by Jordan Deandre Williams, who conveys all the pent-up angst and heartbreak of the sensitive, literary 14-year-old protagonist when commanding a song. But Williams’ portrayal wasn’t as secure in bringing to life the dramatic coming-of-age saga of a high schooler discovering his identity in a town that wants to define it along rigid class lines. (Christian Arredondo is scheduled to resume performing as Ponyboy this week.)
Born into the world of the Greasers, Ponyboy, who’s being raised by his two older brothers after his parents were killed in a car crash, is proud of his slick hair. But he refuses to be limited by it. Bright and bookish, he would like to write his way out of his Tulsa trap. But just venturing to the cinema on the fancy side of town makes him a target of privileged, arrogant bullies.
The book by playwright Adam Rapp and Levine, who in addition to his work on the score serves as music supervisor (among other roles), depends on the right ensemble blend. The casting has to communicate a particular world and adolescent psychology. And the natural swagger that’s needed to fill in the gaps of the story fails to materialize.
Jackson Reagin, who has a captivating voice, returns to the company to play Sodapop Curtis, the brother who does his best to keep the peace within the family. Travis Roy Rogers plays Darrel Curtis, the eldest who has been forced to take on a parental role and is starting to resent all his unappreciated sacrifices.
This is a makeshift household, still reeling with grief. But the relationships ought to feel more solid than they do here. And this awkwardness manifests outside the Curtis home as well. The group story isn’t delineated with enough dramatic nuance.
To take one example, when Ponyboy and Cherry Valance (Emma Hearn), who’s dating Bob (Gabriel White Marín), the hotheaded leader of the Socs, have their encounter at the movies, the impression isn’t that of an awkward freshman from the wrong side of the tracks talking to an older girl with money from his high school but that of a pubescent boy bumping into his former babysitter.
The musical performances rescue this touring production. Among the supporting cast’s vocal standouts are Bonale Fambrini, who plays Johnny Cade, Ponyball’s loyal friend who can’t catch a break in life, and Dallas Winston (Tyler Jordan Wesley), whose tough life has made him hard on the outside but vulnerable on the inside — and fiercely protective toward those who need it most.
The choreography by brothers Rick Kuperman and Jeff Kuperman is sensational. When the gang war that’s been building all along between the Greasers and the Socs finally explodes in the second act, the violence is conveyed through movement, lighting, sound and just all around scenic brilliance. Best of all, the stylization doesn’t aestheticize the bloodshed but terrifyingly drives home the destructive waste.
The last stretch of the musical, when Ponyboy is back with his brothers stunned by all the losses that have racked up during his misadventures, drags a bit because of the lack of fine-tuning in the characterizations. But “Stay Gold,” the show’s penultimate number that emanates directly from Johnny’s final words to Ponyboy at the hospital, puts a spotlight on the innocence that’s still nobly struggling to survive this harsh world — the very quality that makes Hinton’s novel an indelible classic.
The post Musical performances and glorious staging rescue touring production of ‘The Outsiders’ appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
