Watch the Cast and Creative Team of The Outsiders Bring an Epic Rumble to the Broadway Stage

If you know one thing about the story of the The Outsiders, you know that, at some point, there’s a hell of a fight. In the S.E. Hinton novel and the film adaptation by Francis Ford Coppola, the climactic brawl between the two rival gangs, the Greasers and the Socs, is a bloody, sweaty riot of sledgehammer blows, kicks to the head, hair-pulling, gasping and cussing.

So how does the new Broadway version of The Outsiders bring that grueling adolescent battle to life on stage?

To find out, The Broadway Show visited The Outsiders’ rehearsal room while director Danya Taymor and choreographers Rick and Jeff Kuperman spoke to Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek.

“The stage direction of the rumble is one of the most visceral, clear, powerful stage directions I’ve read,” Taymor said of writer Adam Rapp’s script. “It’s violence and it’s tenderness.” Wanting the movement, dance and violence of the show to be part of the same sensual, physical language, Taylor brought in the Kupermans to choreograph all of it.

“This rumble, it’s raw, it’s dirty, it’s chaotic,” said Jeff. “It’s not quite dance, but it does move from a more naturalistic mode and then, hopefully, even without you quite noticing, it ramps into a more expressionistic mode.”

“We almost describe it as a Bosch painting,” said Rick of the first phase of the rumble. “You zoom out and see the totality of the chaos happening … But you can also zoom in and pay attention to any duet or trio and see the fully-fleshed, crafted fight.”

“It is harrowing to watch," Taymor added. "Even in a rehearsal studio with full lights."