Exploding off the Buell stage, The Outsiders delivers an intense testosterone fueled depiction of class conflict, loss, and a search for belonging. Yet, despite all the horrors depicted on the stage in visceral and imaginative ways, it leaves you with hope.
This story plays out on the gravel backstreets of the wrong side of Tulsa, Oklahoma. A street fight in a deluge is one of the most powerful theatrical experiences I have ever had in the Buell. The muscular action is raw and vicious, yet as exquisitely choreographed as any ballet. Lighting is superbly deployed throughout, from massive strobe lights (beware if these trigger reactions) to handheld flashlights that eerily patrol the darkened audience as much as the actors on stage. The action swings between intense, unsettling energy to almost silence.
Staging is starkly beautiful with a massive wooden structure that shape shifts into a drive-in movie theater, a church, a barn, and more. The flat, open landscape of Oklahoma is celebrated with sunrise and sunset colors silhouetting tools, tires, wires and prairie grasses.
The actors are all believable and their voices are spectacular. When the three brothers are in harmony, it is as beautiful as a Nashville hit. Tyler Jordan Wesley’s (Dallas) farewell ode hits the soul. His vocals are so rich and smooth and guttural.
From the surprise opening scene to the end, Christian Arredondo (in the performance we saw) as Ponyboy, captures the audience and we fall in love with him. Throughout his performance I heard people around me respond to him in a way that made you feel he was yours. Your son, your kid brother. A sensitive soul, with an eye for beauty (he quotes Frost poetry and Charles Dickens, for Pete’s sake!), born on the wrong side of the tracks and relentlessly punished for it by society. His journey is painful and you root for him and his fellow outsiders.
Other notable performances are given by Bonale Fambrini as Johnny, (touchingly playing a sweet boy abandoned to the streets), Travis Roy Rogers as big brother Darrel (old before his time, tortured with the burden of holding together his family), and Corbin Drew Ross as Sodapop (a hunky soft-hearted lunk with a surprisingly light, almost ethereal voice). Doing her best to bridge the social divide is Emma Hearn as Cherry, the leading female character and one of the few in this male-dominated show. Her vocals add a softer edge, and her strength of conviction over right and wrong packs a punch stronger than any of the male warriors.
The score, infused with country twang, Gospel, and early rock and roll, is so American. Unlike many Broadway shows, the music transcends the theatre and sticks (“Great Expectations” is looping in my brain), as does the story. The tale of teenage angst is universal to all of us. The Outsiders is an authentic American theatrical experience, exposing our societal failures, and holding up the promises of every individual, no matter the side of the tracks where fate led them to be born.
The Outsiders runs Sep 8 – 27, 2026 at the Buell Theatre. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit Denvercenter.org.
-By Jimmy McDonough