Noah Pacht Fulfills Great Expectations as Ponyboy in The Outsiders

Age: 24

Hometown: Houston, Texas

Current role: Noah Pacht stars as Ponyboy in The Outsiders on Broadway beginning March 17, 2026.

Previous roles: Pacht made his Broadway debut last season in Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor is the Villain as an understudy for the roles of Mason Adams and Lee Turner. He has appeared off-Broadway in The Merchant of Venice.

Hip-Hop Flip-Flop
Growing up in Houston, Pacht's parents may not have been performers themselves, but they were always supportive of the arts. His dad, an avid fan of movies and television shows, raised Pacht in a "media household." Meanwhile, he credits his mom for getting him into dance from a young age. "I started dancing when I was eight years old. From eight to 13, I did competitive hip-hop. That was my life. I wanted to be a choreographer. I genuinely thought that was my path." Then, as teenagers are wont to do, Pacht changed his mind. "I very abruptly quit dancing cold turkey in seventh grade. I was like, 'I'm done. I'm too cool for this,'" he recalls. "And then I really missed performing. My best friend had done a play, and he was like, 'I hated that, but I think you would love it.' I started doing plays and musicals in high school, and I haven't stopped."

Meet Your Heroes
Two musical theater pros who have had the greatest influence on Pacht are Jeremy Jordan and Corey Cott. "I was a huge Newsies kid. My sophomore year of high school, I was watching that Disney+ Newsies pro shot on a loop," he shares. "Cott, I have a really interesting love for and relationship towards. He was in Bandstand, the musical. They filmed the pro shot and for one weekend, it was released in movie theaters. I went with some of my friends and I was blown away. I was like, 'Who is this guy? Where did he learn how to do that?'" After looking him up and learning he went to Carnegie Mellon, 16-year-old Pacht made a decision. "I was like, 'I have to go there. He went there, I have to learn how to do something like that.'" To top it all off, Pacht recently got in touch with Cott and shared that story. "He was super warm and friendly to me. I asked him for some advice about what it's like to replace in a musical."

Rejection Is Redirection
While Pacht grew up dancing and loved doing musicals in high school, he admits that when he first started, he was "not one of those people that was just a beautiful and natural singer. It took a lot of work, and I had voice lessons. I had a great teacher, Jack Beetle, who taught me so much about singing." By the time he was a senior in high school, he felt confident enough to audition for musical theater programs, but ended up attending Carnegie Mellon's acting program. In hindsight, he notes that "rejection is redirection," and expresses love and gratitude for his college experience and learning from acting teachers as well as his peers. "I felt really inspired being around so many incredible singers and musicians, because we're all one big class. I think by osmosis you get to pick up a lot, just listening and being around it."

Grease Got a Hold
Pacht has a long history with The Outsiders musical as a fan. He went to college with Jason Schmidt, who made his Broadway debut in the original cast as Sodapop Curtis. Pacht followed the production in its early stages through Schmidt, as it premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse and subsequently transferred to Broadway. He first saw the show in its early weeks of previews at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. One of the friends he went with was Travis Roy Rogers, who is now playing Darrel Curtis in The Outsiders North America tour. "I was just so blown away," Pacht says of his initial reaction to the musical. "I thought it was magnetic and powerful, and it wasn't like anything I'd ever seen done in the theater. It gave me that feeling that I had that first time I saw Newsies and Bandstand. There's just something raw and strong, dangerous and emotional, beautiful and vulnerable about this musical."

Great Expectations
He was so moved by the experience that as he walked out of the theater, Pacht called one of his best friends from college to tell him: "I don't know when, I don't know where, but I'm going to play Ponyboy." He jokes, "I was like, 'I'll play it in my room. I'll pay other people to watch me do this.' But I just love the role, I loved the play and I felt really connected to the part." Pacht is a believer in The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron's book and program pegged as "a spiritual path to higher creativity." As he explains, the book encourages "looking for synchronicities. When you set your mind on something that you really want, something with your ambition, something you're passionate about, you're going to start seeing things that help you get there everywhere you look." Pacht took this to heart when he moved to New York City, purchasing copies of both The Outsiders and Great Expectations, the book Ponyboy reads in the story. "It was well before I had an audition, well before I met [director] Danya Taymor. But I was like, 'I'm going to start reading this book right now, because some day an audition is going to come.' I put that out there, and I was going to prepare however I could."

That Green Light
Making his Broadway debut as an understudy in John Proctor is the Villain—also directed by the "genius" Danya Taymor—was an incredible learning experience for Pacht. "I was overwhelmingly excited to get to make my Broadway debut in a play, especially a play as profound and powerful as John Proctor. It was a masterclass," he says. "Getting to see, what does Tony season look like? How does the Broadway stage work? How much do you tip your dresser? All these little things that you just don't know until you know, I got to learn by watching all these people that knew what they were doing."

The Insiders
Pacht leads an almost entirely new cast of The Outsiders beginning March 17, with many actors making their Broadway debuts in the show. After his experience as an understudy, he has even more respect for the many standbys in this company. "One of the great things about our show is that swings, understudies, alternates, covers get to go on so frequently," he says. "There's such a rich culture of variety that everyone brings their own essence, their own soul. There's such a variety of alignments in who's performing and when, that every night it's going to be a completely different, beautiful, new energy."

Stay Gold
Finally stepping into the Chuck Taylors of the character he's wanted to play for years, Pacht is working to refine his Ponyboy while in rehearsals ahead of his first bow. "I'm really excited about the fact that Ponyboy is not just a vessel of storytelling like any other character in a play, but is the narrator. There's a really interesting relationship that he has—that I'll have—with the fourth wall and with the audience," he says. "Ponyboy has to be raw and vulnerable and open while knowing that everyone is watching, and while having that relationship with them. It's going to be a challenge, and it's going to be exciting. I think it'll change night to night," he adds of his performance. "Every audience brings in a different energy and has their own personality and sense of humor and lived experience. But I'm really excited to develop that relationship with the audience, and with people who love the show as much as I do."

Get tickets to The Outsiders!