Some audiences attending “The Outsiders,” the new Broadway musical coming to Richmond on its first national tour, have been so enthusiastic that they’ve almost stopped the show.
“We couldn’t hear because of how responsive the crowd was,” says Corbin Drew Ross, who plays Sodapop Curtis in the production, describing one performance. “We were in the middle of a song and looking at each other like, where is the beat?”
That level of response may have been specific to the tour’s stop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, though, which is the setting of the musical and, perhaps more importantly, the setting of the beloved book the show is based on.
A groundbreaking young adult novel when it was released in 1967, “The Outsiders” gained a fervent following due to its stark but honest view of life for adolescents growing up in an urban underclass. Author S.E. Hinton was a teenager when she penned the book and her story only gained more fans when adapted into a movie by Francis Ford Coppola in 1983.
Tulsa embraced “The Outsiders” as a key part of the city’s cultural fabric with the opening of The Outsiders House Museum in 2019. The museum is housed in the structure that Coppola used as the Curtis family home for the movie. The house had fallen into disrepair but was saved from demolition in 2016, and the museum works to preserve the legacy of the book, the movie and now, the musical.
Ross says thinking about the talent that came together for the movie is mind-blowing. “That cast is so incredibly star-studded,” he says. The film featured breakout performances by actors like Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise and Diane Lane. “We went to The Outsiders House and saw all of the behind-the-scenes Polaroids they have of people like Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio. It’s just so crazy.”
In the movie, the role of Sodapop was played by Rob Lowe and Ross says he finds it hard to believe that he is now part of “The Outsiders” legacy and facing comparisons to Lowe. “I think it’s genuinely insane,” he says with a laugh.
Ross turned 21 last fall and has a special affinity for the story thanks to spending his childhood in Denton, Texas. “I grew up about 45 minutes from the border of Oklahoma so it feels vastly similar,” says Ross.
“Our director, Danya Taymor, believes in using a lot of visuals to bring certain aspects of the story to life so, on our rehearsal walls, there were just a million pictures. One was of someone learning how to do a backflip on a mattress with all of his friends around. That’s exactly what my childhood was.”
Always a physically adept child, Ross focused on performing from an early age: “I was always doing acrobatics and was regularly throwing myself off of heights but it was always with an eye toward being able to do it on stage.”
Acting became a key part of his high school experience and he even changed schools multiple times in order to appear in different shows. “I went to six different high schools growing up,” Ross says. “I always just wanted to do theater so I would go from show to show to show, wherever people needed me. It was very strange.”
The musical adaptation of “The Outsiders” has become one of a handful of true sensations on Broadway since the pandemic. Opening in 2024, it won four Tony Awards in 2025 including Best Musical. The production was spotlighted in a New York Times piece that noted it was the first musical to open since 2022 to become profitable.
Ross cites the musical’s Americana-inflected score and the commitment to intense storytelling as key to its success. “It really does stand on its own,” he says. “I think it’ll be on Broadway for another five years at least.”
Broadway in Richmond’s “The Outsiders” runs March 24 – 29 at the Altria Theater, 6 North Laurel St. Tickets and information available at https://broadwayinrichmond.com/.
