Director Danya Taymor wants “The Outsiders” to feel elemental. The 2023 musical, based on S.E. Hinton’s 1967 novel and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film adaptation, boasts a production design that incorporates earth, fire, water and air — literally, in some cases, such as the rain-soaked rumble between rival gangs from 1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma. When the first national tour comes to the Cadillac Palace Theatre this month, it will retain many of these raw details (blood, gravel and, yes, rain), though no live flames are used in the touring version.
Taymor, whose work on the Broadway production won her the 2024 Tony Award for best direction of a musical, intends these effects to convey more than technical prowess. She and the team of designers (several of whom also won Tonys) envision the story as a memory play in the vein of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie,” with all the dreamlike qualities that entails, whether nightmarish or gold-tinged. The production also aims to evoke the physical world of characters such as Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny Cade, who are teenagers living on the poorer side of Tulsa’s socioeconomic divide.
“All the actors transform all the objects: they create the fire; obviously, they’re in the rumble; they change the set in front of you. There’s nothing hidden,” Taymor said in a recent Tribune interview. “Part of the aesthetic was also about the fact that the characters don’t have a lot of stuff. It’s still an amazing, spectacular production, but it is really grounded and gritty and within the realms of what those characters might be surrounded by.”
Originally slated to premiere at the Goodman Theatre but canceled due to COVID-19, “The Outsiders” opened at La Jolla Playhouse in 2023 and transferred the following year to Broadway, where it is still running. The musical’s book is co-written by Justin Levine (“Moulin Rouge! The Musical”) and Adam Rapp, a playwright and 2006 Pulitzer Prize finalist who grew up in Joliet (not to be confused with his brother Anthony Rapp, an original cast member of “Rent”). Levine also collaborated with Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance, of the folk duo Jamestown Revival, to write the roots/country score and lyrics.
As the film does, the musical begins with 14-year-old Ponyboy (played by Nolan White on tour) writing in a notebook about recent events he experienced with his best friend, Johnny (Bonale Fambrini). Both boys belong to the Greasers, a working-class gang in ongoing conflict with the wealthier Socs (short for Socialites). Though their home lives and social environments are often difficult or downright violent, Ponyboy and Johnny are thoughtful youngsters who look for the good in their world, whether in the beauty of a sunset or the kindness of a friend.
Hinton was only a teenager when she wrote the novel, basing the story on two gangs at her high school and launching the young-adult genre in the process.
“She was talking about real things that teenagers go through, that many of us have gone through, whether we want to have or not, and I think it touches on this universal human experience of loss,” said Taymor. “There’s so many ways into this story that I think resonate with people.”
Audience members also may relate to the theme of class divides or the experience of finding friendship with others who feel like misfits.
During the musical’s development, the creative team spent a lot of time in Tulsa, visiting the places Hinton wrote about and speaking with her and others involved in making the film. Both the Broadway and touring companies also traveled to Tulsa before starting rehearsals, and the tour officially opened there last October.
“This story really belongs to the city of Tulsa, and the people in Tulsa are so proud of it,” Taymor said.
Taymor looks forward to the tour’s arrival in Chicago, which was the site of formative moments in her early career. She directed the 2017 world premiere of Antoinette Nwandu’s “Pass Over” at Steppenwolf Theatre, a production that was filmed by Spike Lee, and later directed the play at Lincoln Center and on Broadway. In early 2020, she made her Goodman debut as the director of korde arrington tuttle’s “Graveyard Shift.” Her career has continued its ascent since then; after “The Outsiders,” she earned a second Tony nomination for “John Proctor is the Villain” in 2025, and she will direct the forthcoming film adaptation of the Kimberly Belflower play.
“Getting to work at those theaters was life-changing for me,” Taymor said of her time at Steppenwolf and the Goodman. “I found Chicago so welcoming, and I found the community so supportive, both of me coming from somewhere else but also just of each other, and I just loved it. It was a gift in my life, definitely, and I’m so thrilled that ‘The Outsiders’ is coming there, because I do think the Chicago audience will really respond to it.”
Both on Broadway and on tour, Taymor has been pleased to see young people connecting with this story, as well as multigenerational audiences taking it in together.
“I think the way the story is told — that it is being told by young people, and it’s very athletic and visceral and real — is speaking to young theatergoers and inspiring them and bringing them to the theater in a way that I find really exciting and thrilling,” she said.
This is Taymor’s first production to embark on a national tour, and she’s been fascinated by the range of audience responses.
“It does hit differently, depending on where you are in the country. There are certain references that when we were in Omaha, the audience reacted to in a different way that I’ve never heard in New York City,” she said.
“I think this story really is a populist story that’s for everyone, so getting to bring it to places and to people who might not be able to come to Broadway or New York is very, very special.”
“The Outsiders” plays Feb. 10-22 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St.; tickets $69-$195 at broadwayinchicago.com
Emily McClanathan is a freelance critic.
