“The Outsiders,” is a classic story that most, if not all, of us have read at least once in our lives. For those unaware, the story takes place in 1967 Tulsa and follows Ponyboy Curtis (the youngest of three brothers) and focuses heavily on the divide between the poor East Side Greasers and the wealthier West Side Socs. The Fox’s production of “The Outsiders: A New Musical,” which ran Jan. 7-18 reimagines the story in a new format, pulling the characters straight from the page and onto the stage. 

This feeling is no better shown than in Dallas Winston’s actor – Tyler Jordan Wesley – who, in my eyes, was the highlight of the show. Not only did he perfectly portray the character of Dally, but the voice he brought to the character was like a force pulling your eyes to watch him at all times. As someone who used to listen to the soundtrack of the show before I saw it, for most of the show I was waiting for the song “Little Brother.” The song is by far my favorite from the soundtrack, acting as not only a send-off to the character of Dally Winston, but also as a perfect way to show the grief that Dally feels after the death of Johnny Cade. Those expectations were completely met with Wesley’s fantastic performance of the anticipated song.

Of course, such wonderful casting couldn’t have been done without help from the show’s director, Danya Taymor, whose direction was nothing short of amazing. In most book adaptations, the first-person point of view is lost almost completely. However, the direction of the show puts the audience into Ponyboy’s shoes through specialized sound and lighting effects. The first of these comes in the very beginning of the show when Ponyboy gets into an altercation with the Socs after sneaking into the west side to see a movie: blinding lights flashing from the stage are paired with a high-pitched ringing as his head hits the ground before the stage goes completely black. This not only recreates that first-person perspective the book is written in, but also acts as a creative way for the actors to leave the stage.

However, just like with all shows, “The Outsiders” is nowhere near perfect. Though I thoroughly enjoyed watching it, I do have one complaint about the fact that they removed a major line from the story. In the book, which the musical is based on, there is a line, “It seemed funny to me that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one. Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset.” This line in the original story adds heavily to the idea that, despite social class, being a Greaser, being a Soc, and how different everyone’s lives are, we’re all the same and go through struggles just like everyone else. This idea is present throughout both the musical and the book, but is heavily cut down and given much less focus in the musical. I understand that due to the differing mediums in which the stories are told, some ideas and themes get lost in the translation, but it would’ve been cool to see those themes of togetherness and similarity be carried over, and it’s a shame it wasn’t.

Despite that small critique, this was an amazing show. “The Outsiders” is already in itself a classic and timeless story, and the musical adaptation is simply a great way to experience or even reexperience the story of Ponyboy and the Greasers. As someone who not only read the book, but also watched the movie in middle school, as I’m sure most others have, I can not recommend the musical enough because it is nothing short of amazing.