‘The Outsiders’ Review: Broadway Musical Packs Heart and Soul but Little Punch
variety.comNaveen Kumar Tough guys with a soft side have long held a firm grip on the American imagination. S.E. Hinton’s novel “The Outsiders,” about a cadre of down-and-out boys, has been read by millions of restless adolescents since it was published in 1967, when the author herself was a teenager.
Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film, stacked with before-they-were-A-list hunks including Rob Lowe and Matt Dillon, ushered in the Brat Pack era of moviemaking that paid serious attention to young people and their discontents.
A new musical version of “The Outsiders,” now playing at the Jacobs Theater on Broadway, leverages the appeal of these previous iterations: the insatiable longing of youth, the triumph of integrity over adversity and, yes, a cast that smolders in vintage muscle tees (costumes courtesy of Sarafina Bush).
But the production only intermittently rises to the challenge of transforming such familiar material into theater that feels both original and necessary.
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