The Outsiders' Broadway Cast and Creative Team Promise Fire and Rain, Mud and Dirt, Rhythm and Blues

The Outsiders, based on the novel by S.E. Hinton and the 1983 film, begins performances on March 16 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, opening April 11. The new musical follows misfits Ponyboy Curtis, Johnny Cade and their chosen family as they fight to survive in 1967 Oklahoma.

“Every day in rehearsals I’m like, I need to bring my absolute A-game,” Brody Grant, who plays Ponyboy Curtis, told The Broadway Show. “I cannot let up. This company is wild.”

“The experience of watching the musical is going to be visceral,” said the director Danya Taymor, who also promises strongly “elemental” scenic design: rain, fire, smoke, mud, dirt. “It’s kind of in your face in the best way.” Composers Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance of Jamestown Revival, meanwhile, promise an Americana/R'n'B-infused soundscape influenced by Bill Withers, The Band and Leon Russell.

More members of the creative team and cast—which also includes Sky Lakota-Lynch, Joshua Boone, Brent Comer, Jason Schmidt, Emma Pittman, Daryl Tofa, Dan Berry and Kevin William Paul—told The Broadway Show what to expect, along with a sneak peek of one of the songs, “Great Expectations.”