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'The Outsiders' Story and Characters | Box Seat Babes Podcast · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  Greetings from Tulsa!
• 0:03
  Welcome back listeners to another episode of the Cosmic Curtain.
• 0:07
  Today we're discussing The Outsiders, which is currently on Broadway and touring North America soon if it hasn't already started.
• 0:14
  I can't remember when it started.
• 0:16
  But before we jump into all the excitement, if you enjoyed this episode, please like, follow, and subscribe to Cosmic Circus Broadway or us, the Boxxy Babes on all social
• 0:25
  medias at Boxxy Babes.
• 0:27
  And of course spoilers if you have not read outsiders if you've not seen the movie with Rob Lowe I'm sorry.
• 0:33
  Where was your childhood?
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  And if you have not seen this musical again I am sorry because it is fantastic and I cannot wait for everybody to see it All that to be said if you've not enjoyed any of those
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  things yet, and you want to be spoiler free Skip this film save it come back to it.
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  We will will be here for your perusing anytime you want to that being said
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  Now that I said greetings from Tulsa, I can't take that back.
• 1:02
  Hey RJ, what's up?
• 1:04
  What up?
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  How are you, Tulsa?
• 1:10
  I'm gonna you Pony Boy today, okay?
• 1:11
  We've reached that point in the night where you're just your Pony Boy.
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  I hope you're okay with that.
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  solid.
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  I'll be on the run.
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  You'll be on the run, aren't we all?
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  Alright.
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  What grade were you in when you read The Outsiders?
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  What do like?
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  I feel like I was pretty young.
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  Well, that's a lie.
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  I think it was middle school.
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  Yes, correct.
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  I was going to say that was our curriculum.
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  I think I read it twice, once in sixth grade and once in eighth grade.
• 1:55
  Okay, that makes sense.
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  I was gonna say I think I read it in eighth grade Which makes sense with some of the things that it covers That that feels like the right age bracket so sixth grade also makes
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  sense When you said fifth grade, was like what school did you go to and why were they teach?
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  Why were you they having you the outsiders?
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  In fifth grade, I have some concerns.
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  I would like to talk to your school, please
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  It's okay, we'll let them slide.
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  Did you watch the film too or did you just read the book?
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  Because I remember we like, we watched like, we watched the film after the, after we read the book.
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  It was like a pairing because I loved, teachers love to try to have pairings as much as possible so that they could have a break from us.
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  Yeah, shockingly, I never watched the movie, which I need to literally write that down because I was upset.
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  Like when I read the book, I was obsessed.
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  And I remember thinking, I want to watch the movie.
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  But back in the day, the only way to get a movie was to go to the library and check it out.
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  What's so long ago?
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  And I don't know that they even had it or I don't know if my mom would let me watch it.
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  There was something, there was a reason I didn't ever see it.
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  And now as an adult, I'm like, wow, I really need to go back and do that.
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  I mean, it's such a classic story and a classic film that I...
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  Actually, I'm gonna go back to our beginning.
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  When we first talked about this with the Tonys, I said, we all know this story.
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  Like, I fucking knew what that meant.
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  But this is a story that is so, like, I don't know, quintessential middle America.
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  Like, you have this West Side story, gang story, we have all these things.
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  The film is a classic in my opinion.
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  remember watching it and Maybe it was my gay awakening because Rob Lowe was in it.
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  And if you don't know this by now, I love Rob Lowe But it had so many big stars in it it was such it was like it was actually a really good
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  was kind of like the Brat Pack of the 80s almost, the way that it had all of these different actors in it.
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  And I remember loving the film almost more than I love the book.
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  And you know that's not how I usually roll.
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  I love myself a source material book.
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  So yeah, put that on your list.
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  What are you waiting for?
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  Gotta find it now.
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  I'm sure it's somewhere.
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  That being said, is this...
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  I said middle America, but that's pretty much what this story is.
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  How did you kind of interpret this story?
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  mean, specifically like the stage show.
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  Like, as you're watching it, what was this story kind of speaking to you?
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  I mean, immediately and obviously like already kind of knowing the storyline and the book, it obviously gives like grease feels like we've got the...
• 5:13
  cool kids and the not so cool kids, they both kind of think they're cool.
• 5:20
  Yeah, that's a great way to put it.
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  And obviously this specifically is giving, like you talk about middle America, the class battles, right, of who has money, who doesn't have money, what do family dynamics look
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  like, and how much of that plays into the characters.
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  I think the telling thing about the story is the greasers are very much a found family because their family dynamics are so diverse.
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  There's a lot of broken families.
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  There's lot abnormal families for the time period.
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  And then you have the socs, which are very much like the...
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  Dad works the nine to five and comes home and mom makes the dinner and we're just benefiting off the fact that daddy has money, you know, and getting to live off that
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  privilege.
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  And so it is like a very, it's like a very timeless story that like we've seen play out time and time again, but it is played out a little differently in this.
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  mean like.
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  What about this feels different than maybe like the normal social class struggle story that we see so often in different media?
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  Well, I think.
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  This doesn't play off of race, which is honestly like...
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  almost refreshing.
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  Like, it's just, it's reality.
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  Like, it doesn't matter your ethnicity.
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  Like, you can struggle and you can do well.
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  And that can happen for literally everyone.
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  Absolutely, I think I think you have a point there that it doesn't play on the typical Storyline we see with socioeconomic struggles like this it's not like The greasers are
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  made up of all different ethnicities all different backgrounds all different Like ages like there's so many different levels here
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  What constitutes them so to be a family is the fact that nobody else will have them as a family in a way and they've made a family with that and like this speaks to like going
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  beyond Specific ideas and boundaries that exist and so many Common stories such as this like I'm thinking of a West Side story where it's literally where the Irish Catholics
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  against the people from Puerto Rico like like that's a very Cut and dry it's
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  the color of their skin and their ethnic backgrounds.
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  like, that's just a very, we're so used to seeing that, but they don't play that up in the outsiders, which was kind of great.
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  I think on the flip side, the Soches, appropriately so.
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  I mean, they're all pretty white and pretty like football quarterback and his buddies type.
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  Um, which, know, some stereotypes exist for a reason.
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  I went to a private school where that was very much the case.
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  you know, high school quarterback.
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  at eBottom a brand new Mustang and also paid for, you know, the new football team equipment, you know, stuff like that.
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  So money does talk, doesn't matter what.
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  age that it happens in particularly.
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  for sure.
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  And at the center of this is really, it is a social, it's a very intimate story between two characters, but it's what they kind of do with this class struggle.
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  And I'm talking about Ponyboy and Johnny, Johnny Cakes, is that his name, Johnny Cakes?
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  Who are kind of embroiled in Johnny Cade, I'm so sorry, it's not Cakes, it's Cade.
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  That's just your nickname for him, Johnny Cakes.
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  johnny cakes, you know if you have pony boy and you have soda pop like why can't you have johnny cakes?
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  but you have you know, there's a fight and johnny cade Kills somebody and pony boys kind of brought into it too And like it's again that struggle, but it's also the struggle of
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  seeing A group of people who are at the like kind of pushed to their limits
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  And then there's that retaliation that's not like it's not like they're actually retaliating but it's just like the I'm gonna die.
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  And so like there's this intimate story within the larger story because it becomes about Ponyboy and Johnny surviving while the socias are trying to find them and hunt them down
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  to kill them for what they've done.
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  And like so like it's this very interesting.
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  like global dynamics and the intimate dynamics that does make this feel like timeless, but like less than we've seen it before.
• 10:55
  Yeah, the brotherhood aspect, once again, when we talk about family dynamics and not actually blood relation, but the brotherhood, it is, yeah, it's timeless.
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  And I mean, I can't remember exactly what ages they're supposed to be, but it does seem at an age where like brotherhood and friendship is particularly important.
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  Like this is when like the developmental relationship building would be occurring outside of just your quote unquote family.
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  know, specifically Ponyboy, he's 14.
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  Like he has like the age of like looking, you know, he's lost his parents and his brothers are stepping up, but one's embroiled in the game, you know, the greasers.
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  And one is seeing his way out and stuck in a dynamic that he doesn't really want.
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  He doesn't want to be a parent.
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  He doesn't want to be a father.
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  And yet he's stuck with these two kids that need a father figure.
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  So that's another layer.
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  like Ponyboy's finding family where he needs to because he doesn't have a family that's strong anymore and he feels very lost.
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  In fact, could you argue that this is like a Peter Pan story?
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  Like this is like the Lost Boys and you know, the leader who I cannot think of his name.
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  I'm so sorry to the leader.
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  I'm his name is Dallas.
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  He's kind of the Peter Pan of them.
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  He's leading them all towards a better future.
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  least that's what he's kind of hoping for.
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  Oh, I'll to say, do you kind of see the Peter Pan aspect or?
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  It's like.
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  sure.
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  You've got, I mean, you've got your Lost Boys.
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  that would essentially die for each other, right?
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  And kind of avoiding the realities of life by hanging out.
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  They're all in the same place with a leader who also is kind of running away from his own life and his own struggles.
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  It's a easier for him to solve everybody else's problem because he doesn't have to focus on his own then.
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  Which as the story progresses, I don't remember this in the film or the book.
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  So I was honestly shocked when he ends up taking his own life.
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  Because you just want these people to be okay.
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  And he just could not deal with it anymore.
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  Like he had reached the end of his rope and there was no more rope.
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  so he just...
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  He takes things into his own hands.
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  And so like this idea of brotherhood kind of falls apart for a second and then they have to rebuild themselves again.
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  so I think this theme of brotherhood and this found family is why it's kind of speaks, especially at this point in people's lives and in this environment that we're so much
• 14:02
  looking for our community because it feels so, everyone's kind of feeling so lost right now.
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  Yeah, I mean the loss on loss on loss, right, which I mean, it's like kick them when they're down type situation.
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  And yeah, that amount of what I can't imagine.
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  And as we see, like the character development from all of those things that are happening because of.
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  This domino effect that essentially happens.
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  What about the story was poignant for you?
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  What really stood out about the outsiders?
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  Not the music, not the technicality, we'll get into that next time.
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  What about the story really spoke to you?
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  I mean, I think it is exactly the brotherhood of, you know, like we...
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  All are coming from different places, different lives, and yet we're all showing up for each other all of the time.
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  It's just, it's a story that I feel like we don't hear about anymore.
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  It just like doesn't really exist.
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  Because a lot of society has kind of taught us this like, Nassar, wow, words, narcissistic point of view.
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  And so it's very rare, I feel like for people to genuinely have, especially that expansive of a
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  group of people who all are together.
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  Because it's not just like, you never really saw people partnering off like that I think we see right like you have so and so is super close to so and so and we also hang out with
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  so and so and so and so.
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  But you don't see a lot of like, no, like those five people all genuinely love each other and get along.
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  and they all have different relationships with each other.
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  And that's just like, how cool is that?
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  know, like, I think it's really cool.
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  But because it is, I mean, we hear chosen family a lot.
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  I hear that word a lot, but I'm not sure that it's in this way.
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  for No, this is a very specific way.
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  This is like taking the idea of chosen family and actually being a family about it.
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  Like there are chosen families that's like, this is my best friend and he's become part of my family.
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  But this is actually like the, they are there for each other every moment, or die.
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  And you know, for people like Ponyboy, he doesn't really...
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  At first he doesn't experience that with his family and as you kind of go on you see that you know Soda Pop and Daryl do have much bigger hearts that he doesn't see and he doesn't
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  understand until he's gone through some loss and he's gone through what life is like without them.
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  And so the idea of having this strong family and one of the scenes that's really jumping out not to have an ADHD moment here but is when
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  Darryl and Soda Pop are talking and they're like almost upset with Dallas that Ponyboy didn't come to them.
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  And there's like this almost like this showdown between like the leader of, you know, the greasers and the brothers who are just as lost as Ponyboy.
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  And there's a lot of magic there.
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  And I think that for me, that's where a lot of the standout performances are.
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  And there's so many standout performances in the show.
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  That's really hard to kind of tease apart, like who was the most impressive, because everybody has a moment.
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  But I was drawn to specifically Darryl and Soda Pop and Pony Boy, but also their dynamics with Dallas.
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  Like that was just like magic to me.
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  There was just something special about all those four of them on that stage.
• 18:19
  Yeah, mean, they all, it's just, yeah, they all brought something substantially different.
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  And yet they matched the, you never questioned the family, family dynamic.
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  But I don't know, just very...
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  I think depending on...
• 18:49
  lived experience, like, if you are the oldest sibling, or if you're the middle child, or if you're the youngest, I think you could see all of those very clearly and appreciate
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  those experiences for what they are or what they were.
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  And there was a reason for everything that happened, like, and you could see the perspective pretty clearly from everyone's perspective, like you
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  You weren't super on Ponyboy's side and then super on Soda Pop's side.
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  Like you saw it all and you were like, okay, I get it.
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  I get it.
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  I understand everybody and everybody has a perspective and that's why they're all flawed characters.
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  I mean, even the social is like Cherry, which Cherry supposed to be like the lovable, you know, can do no wrong.
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  And you look at her and you see the like, you're just as flawed as everybody else and you're just stuck.
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  And sometimes you don't have a voice and sometimes you do have a voice and it all depends on how you're using your voice.
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  And so that's why I liked about this too, cause it's all, there's, there's a lot of gray.
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  There's a lot of back and forth.
• 20:00
  um in these characters that make them so attractive
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  I have like on the sheet too, have on the Unsung Heroes of the Production, this ensemble strength.
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  What drew you to the ensemble?
• 20:15
  mean, they did a great work, but what was it about them?
• 20:19
  Yeah, I mean, like, so obviously we have very few primary.
• 20:24
  Well, I shouldn't say few, but we have a couple of primary characters.
• 20:29
  But in order to really like fill out the production, like you need people who can match the strength of your primary roles.
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  And I thought that this was very well balanced.
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  Like it wasn't distracting, but you every, all of them had personalities that
• 20:48
  played toward the storytelling that was happening.
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  And I don't know, I just thought that they were very well portrayed.
• 21:00
  the balance was well done.
• 21:03
  They were a lot of people on stage and sometimes for Huge moments and a lot of them had very technical parts too, which again the dancing and the there's a lot of slow motion and
• 21:14
  there was a lot of Gravel kicking and there was a lot of dancing in the rain which we'll talk about a lot of this in the next episode too, but there's Sometimes there's no less
• 21:25
  than like 20 people on that stage Going all the time with different movements of different things
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  So yeah, there was a huge ensemble.
• 21:36
  Yeah, and I mean, and as we'll talk about in regards to the staging, um, and even just the character, like, yeah, you can't have the socias without multiple, right?
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  You can't have the greasers without multiple.
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  And while we have, uh, you know, a couple primaries, like you needed a group of people that could portray that in a way that didn't take away from, know, obviously Bob is
• 22:05
  quote unquote, the villain.
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  But nobody felt upstaged, but they didn't feel.
• 22:16
  like invisible either.
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  Like you saw, everything felt purposeful.
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  When they were on stage, there was a reason.
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  And when they weren't on stage, there was a reason.
• 22:27
  Speaking of Bob specifically Kevin William Paul who plays Bob.
• 22:31
  I liked how they had him Be Bob for the first part of the show and then he became a police officer which I thought was really telling to the the socias and their ideas of How
• 22:43
  societies ran and how he's the one that's kind of chasing after?
• 22:48
  Pony boy and Johnny Cade
• 22:51
  so I thought that was a really cool kind of dynamic that they pulled in where he's one of only people that plays multiple characters in the show, but it felt like it was so
• 22:58
  specific and it was so like the...
• 23:02
  You are...
• 23:04
  Like you die the villain, you become the one that hunts the monster kind of thing.
• 23:08
  And so I thought that was like there was like a beauty to that aspect of his character and his and playing the parts that he did.
• 23:19
  Did you catch that?
• 23:19
  Did you catch that?
• 23:20
  He played both parts?
• 23:21
  I did, yes.
• 23:25
  Good, just gotta make sure.
• 23:26
  I gotta make sure that we're sitting there.
• 23:27
  I mean, we had quite an act of people in front of us.
• 23:29
  You never know what you're gonna catch.
• 23:31
  The people in front of us were loving the show.
• 23:34
  Yes, they were very, very, very into it.
• 23:41
  100 % and so I think you're right the ensemble was great We had two understudies as well our pony boy was an understudy and our cherry was an understudy which both of them did a
• 23:50
  fantastic job Especially because there is a lot to go in pony boy specifically is pretty much on stage from start to finish
• 24:00
  and interacts with the crowd a little bit too, which will be an exciting thing to kind of address in the next one.
• 24:05
  there's a lot of different stuff, but Josh Strobel did a great job as Ponyboy, and I'm really excited to see...
• 24:13
  I hear that he might be taking over the role full-time when the cast change comes over soon.
• 24:18
  So that'd be really cool to see too, because he was fantastic.
• 24:22
  Agreed.
• 24:23
  But with that, are out of time with part one of our The Outsiders discussion.
• 24:29
  So look out for part two, where we will discuss some of the staging, the music, the technicality, and there's a lot of technicality in this show.
• 24:37
  It's understandably so why it won the Tony for best sound and best lighting, which you'll catch in the next episode.
• 24:46
  So thank you again for joining us here in our box seats till the next curtain call.
• 24:51
  Stay golden.