Within the first few minutes of La Jolla Playhouse’s production of The Outsiders a New Musical, I knew I was about to experience something special.
The Outsiders, based on the 1983 Francis Ford Coppola film, tells the story of two teenagers trying to live their lives and follow their dreams in the middle of a turf war between the “Greasers” and the “Socies” in 1967 Tulsa, Oklahoma. There’s an understandable comparison to West Side Story, but instead of this story being boy-likes-girl, it’s much more about love between guys. Brothers, friends, community. I frequently found myself caring about these characters, having a real connection. Not something I can say about every show.
It’s a song-heavy show with an original score by Jonathan Clay & Zach Chance, also known as Jamestown Revival. There are spoken moments, but the show doesn’t shy away from jumping from one song to the next. We tried to identify the genre of the music, and the best we could come up with is Americana, which totally tracks for Tulsa, Oklahoma, I would think. Overall, I thought the songs were strong and somewhat memorable, maybe just a little bit samey, samey.
The entire cast was great, but the two leads, Brody Grant as Ponyboy and Sky Lakota-Lynch as Johnny V, won us over, breaking and warming our hearts. Brody Grant sounded exactly like Reeve Carney (Hadestown and more importantly, Spider-man Turn Off the Dark). I kept waiting for him to sing, “You can change your mind, but you cannot change your heart”.
The real star of the show was the staging and lighting. This is an absolutely beautiful, maybe-Hamilton-inspired, production. Guaranteed to go to Broadway. I have no doubt.
The Outsiders plays until Sun, Apr 2, 2023 at the La Jolla Playhouse.
One response to “The Outsiders World Premier at La Jolla Playhouse”
This may be the first time I’ve seen an audience applaud for choreography as happened in the fight scene. A friend said they may go again just for that!
Another stand-out was Ryan Vasquez as the oldest brother Darrel. He got great songs to sing, and he did a fantastic job.
It’s rare to get male duets, and this story is a coming-of-age for teen boys, so there are several (as well as all three brothers harmonizing, and all the male cast members singing together). Very powerful!
Perfectly cast, amazing dancing/choreography, beautiful and emotional lyrics. Loved it!!