ajhlovestheatre

THE OUTSIDERS

Book by Adam Rapp and Justin Levine

Music and lyrics by Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay & Zach Chance) and Justin Levine

Based on the novel by S E Hinton, and Francis Ford Coppola’s motion picture

Directed by Danya Taymor

Bernard B Jacobs Theatre, New York City – open-ended run

https://outsidersmusical.com

If you like your musical theatre packing a ton of testosterone but also tenderness, with a side of irrepressible youthful energy and a great big dollop of uglycrying, then this electrifying, emotionally charged adaptation of S E Hinton’s coming-of-age novel, revered in the US but known mainly in the UK due to the 1983 Francis Ford Coppola movie version, will knock your socks off. You don’t even need to have any prior knowledge of either the book or the film to be thoroughly moved and exhilarated by Danya Taymor’s spellbinding production: this is one of the most exciting new musicals of the current Broadway season.

Although it’s set in a different city (Tulsa, Oklahoma) and a decade later (1967), The Outsiders is often reminiscent of West Side Story with its tale of warring gangs, accidental death, and youthful disenfranchisement, although the love story, such as it is, is much further down the list of key elements. Here the impoverished Greasers are up against the privileged Socials, and the dramatic stakes are high. Hinton was a teenager when she wrote the original novel and an authentic sense of youthful openness and hormone-driven histrionics permeates through to Adam Rapp and Justin Levine’s dynamic, well-fleshed-out book for the musical.

The score, by Levine and Texan folk duo Jamestown Revival, adds a rich, multi-textured layer of nostalgia and exuberance, vital enough to thrill younger audience members yet so haunting and full of plangent yearning that it feels like a lament for lost youth, which strikes a cord in more senior onlookers. This gorgeous, evocative collection of songs occasionally sounds a bit samey as the evening draws on but it’s such quality work it still feels like a total pleasure. The unforgettable ‘Great Expectations’ that builds from a simple solo line to a thunderous full company chorale is an anthem, and if a dying characters musical exhortation to narrator Ponyboy to ‘Stay Gold’ doesn’t have the tears pouring down your cheeks then you maybe need to check your vital signs. This is folk and blue grass but infused with a potent theatricality. Levine has done his own orchestrations and vocal arrangements and they’re spectacularly good. The cast album will be a must have.

The mind-bogglingly fit, prodigiously talented young male ensemble is the most dynamic bunch of Broadway heartthrobs since the original company of Newsies, although this show is grittier, darker, and, frankly, better. They execute Rick and Jeff Kuperman’s athletic, enthralling choreography with a fearless insouciance, when, that is, they’re not clambering vertiginously up the scaffolding of AMP’s multi-level set. Crucially, they dance in character, so the moves feel raw and spontaneous, even though they’re meticulously drilled. The climactic fight isn’t a traditional number as such, but a thrilling cinematic slugfest unfolding in pouring rain punctuated by great slabs of overwhelming sound and unforgiving light: it’s astonishing.

Taymor’s visionary direction evokes a world on stage, conjuring up car lots, a cinema, a church on fire and a dinghy kitchen with simplicity but a fearsomely well honed stagecraft. The use of projections and Brian Macdevitt’s shape-shifting lighting is exemplary. Technically the show is a wow, but it’s so seamlessly done and the storytelling is so good that you may be sobbing too hard to notice.

There’s not a weak link in the cast but Brody Grant’s watchful, intelligent, sensitive Ponyboy Curtis lingers long in the memory. Jason Schmidt as his sunny, straightforward brother and Brent Comer as the elder, more responsible one, tasked with looking after his siblings after the death of their parents, are equally vivid. Sky Lakota-Lynch teases every last iota of dark and hurt out of Ponyboy’s doomed best friend Johnny and Joshua Boone has a voice and stage presence to thrill the blood as the rebellious Dallas. Although it’s a strongly male dominated work, there’s beautiful work from Emma Pittman as Cherry Valance, the popular Socials princess whose compassion takes her to the wrong side of the tracks.

This is a wonderful piece of work, full of rough magic; inventive, invigorating and ultimately deeply moving. I hope it becomes the long running Broadway fixture it undoubtedly deserves to be. If you’re visiting New York City any time soon, put this, along with Hells Kitchen, at the top of your must-see list.