#the outsiders musical critical

[khrysostomos]

I think I’ve learned that there’s a lot of changes in the musical compared to book/movie, what was interesting reading was some of the James Dean references. Especially as I learned about James Dean life. Dally saying being smooth like James Dean while Darrys like your only going to end up well down a bad path.

nnnn, nonny i totally forgot about that 😭😭😭😭 i remember the hamfisted paul newman parts the most. they had this miserable looking projection of him up that was just utterly weird. i'll have to check (probably jan/feb, don't have access rn) with the musical to see about those parts. every attempt they had to try and, uh, date it was very poor. it was so paul newman centric so i'm interested in combing back over it to check.

i... hm. i have a lot to say about how darry treats dallas tho and i certainly think it was wild for him to say that.

[khrysostomos]

i caught wind of these posts and while i think they're somewhat right (i've seen the musical twice without payment). i have to say, as a black person and a southerner, that it's watering things down to simply say that the way dallas and cherry being written as "weird" is a pure disservice to the actual racism on display. because that is what it is. it's racist.

it's a totally horrendous to take the violent character and make him a dark skinned black man who's musical cues often dip into "stereotypical" black musical genres and making him this sexually aggressive is egregious. it's ahistorical and alarming that the writers of the musical decided to write him harassing a rich upper class girl when everyone would've known that would've gotten him lynched, flat out. like i understand trying to be delicate and all but this is flat out a case of racism. full stop and should be said as such.

musical drift part 3 - the drive in (part 1 because i have a lot to say about this one.)

ah okay so i'm back to hating. i fucking hate the musical drive-in scene. i absolutely hate it.

so first the musical scene opens with revealing that socs and greasers all hang out at the nightly double, that the socs don't have a care in the world beyond "going to the movies :)". there's maybe some tension between cherry and bob, implying that bob cheats on her and he drinks a lot. which... we are already totally watering down the tension from the book, that book!cherry and marcia left the guys because they were drinking too much and the girls didn't like it. now it's just - bob being a vaguely innattentive boyfriend and cherry not seeming to really care.

but now... dally and cherry. so, musical!dally knows who cherry is, he clearly has a crush on her and he's trying to get her attention by talking about cicadas and essentially pointing out that she's white. (the script says her white sweater but considering that dally is played by a black man... it's a very weird choice.) once again the musical makes it feel personal - dally probably knew cherry would be there and that's why he wanted to go to the nightly double, instead of them all just happening to be there the same night. and then, musical!dally sort of escalates, a little bit, when she rebuffs him, but their interactions are very watered down compared to the book. musical!dallas comes across like a sort of an obnoxious dork who gets into trouble sometimes, but he's not really dangerous (beyond the, uh, racist assumptions marcia and the other soc girls might be making about him.)

in the book (and movie) dally is straight up sexually harrassing her. he's not just being mildly annoying, he's saying gross, sexist, dirty things unprompted and ignoring her very obvious no. he's bragging about his criminal record, he's leaning in to kiss her when she's about to throw a coke on him. this is the scene where book!dally is at his worst, this is the mean hood dallas winston, who is bored and dangerous and escalating. but it's also a scene where book!cherry holds her ground, she isn't afraid to immediately and consistently tell him to get lost. musical!cherry feels more... soft spoken. again, watered down.

but the book! the book!! book!johnny comes in and tell book!dally to stop. this is a huge moment for johnny and dally, it really shows the extent of their relationship: johnny realizes what dally is doing has crossed a line and he stands up to him. book!ponyboy remarks that this is huge for johnny, who barely talks on a good day, nevermind standing up to dally who he respects greatly. and maybe even more importantly, book!dally listens to him. and walks away. he gets mad, sure, but when johnny stands his ground dally essentially says, "okay, i see you, and i respect you more than i respect this stupid soc girl anyway." there's a lot of trust and respect in this moment, johnny risking his safety, but dally also recognizing the risk johnny's is taking and choosing to value him over the alternative.

i could go on about this book!scene but i'll stop there.

but the musical scene... musical!johnny stands up to dally, and musical!dally immediately goes to pony to make fun of johnny and question his authority, and then get immediately sidelined. and then musical!dally doesn't even stop harrassing cherry until cherry throws the coke and tells him to get lost.

wow, what a girlboss. so feminism.

i just... wow. wow. i haven't even gotten through the rest of the scene yet because this bit pissed me off so badly. as mentioned above, it feels like everyone is really watered down. musical!cherry doesn't even reject dally on her own at first, marcia does it for her, and it comes across like cherry is just following social expectations of not liking the black guy the hood, whereas book!cherry didn't like being harrassed, but she also didn't like the part of herself that liked dally and troublemakers like him and bob. musical!cherry feels much more one-dimensional than book!cherry.

now. about dally and ponyboy's relationship - it's obviously super divorced from their book counterparts in a way i dislike. musical!pony takes on a bit of a book!johnny role, seeing dally as cool and someone to follow and look up to. book!ponyboy, he fucking hates dally. he doesn't trust him, he doesn't understand him and actively dislikes how mean and violent he is. i feel like the musical choosing to give ponyboy the hero worship really leaves no room for johnny and dally's relationship at all. as musical!dally even says, who does musical!johnny think he is? because right now he's just nobody. he's a perma-victim of circumstance with no real power or agency of his own. book!dally gave johnny power and agency by listening to him and trusting him. musical!dally does not.

as an aside, also, i feel like the musical is totally defanging like. everyone. book!pony comments that he would've joined in dally's harrassment had the girls been greasers. it's a really interesting look inside the head of somebody who's a part of this subculture but is slowly learning that maybe he doesn't like or agree with parts of it. but musical!dally doesn't even harrass cherry, he just says some annoying things and then talks very vaguely about what's under her clothes; there's no sense that this is an accepted part of greaser culture, it's just dally being obnoxious.

so. that's all i got for the first part of the drive-in scene. i'm really not enjoying it, to say the least.

[chippedshake]

Based on a prompt by @amethyst-writer

It's been a couple weeks since Darry and Ponyboy agreed to stop fighting. Of course, months of a strained relationship, of barely contained hollering and silent tears at night aren’t going to vanish with a simple conversation. They're going to keep on arguing, no one could believe anything else, but at least Soda won't be forced to be a middleman anymore. They won't tear their family apart anymore because they're communicating and talking to each other and not bottling up their emotions until they explode in a slap and running away and two of their friends dying.

But old habits die hard and Ponyboy is late again.

"Where've you been?" Darry asks, trying to keep the accusatory tone out of his voice.

"M'I late?" There’s a testy undertone to Ponyboy's voice, daring Darry to disagree. Is he the only one putting any sort of effort into this whole "no fighting" thing?

"Yeah, buddy, you're late."

They aren't screaming. Two months ago, they would be screaming. Now they're trading tense, passive-aggressive statements with long stretches of silence in between.

Darry doesn't know which one he prefers.

"Sorry."

"Can you stop with the sarcasm for a second and actually talk to me?"

"I am talkin' to you, Darry, you just don't care about what I say 'cause you already got your whole speech prepared."

A scathing reply is crawling up Darry's throat and dancing around his tongue, tickling his gums and pulling at his teeth, trying to force his lips open.

Pony ran away and Soda ran away because you can't keep your temper down.

"Right." He shoves it back and down his throat "I'm sorry, Ponyboy."

Ponyboy can't meet his eyes and shifts his weight to his right leg.

"Don’t worry 'bout it, Dar. I'll try an' be on time next time."

He is. On time, that is, the next time he goes out. Which is the day right after, by the way. As if he didn’t want to spend time with his brothers.

The problem this time is that he's gone out with Curly Shepard and TPd their principal's house.

Pony didn’t even tell Darry. He had to find out when the school called him because they got caught.

"I just can't believe you were this stupid! Don't you ever think, Pony? How do you expect to get out of here when all you ever do is get into trouble with Curly Shepard, who spends more time in the reformatory than in his own house?" Darry takes his coat off aggressively as they walk inside the house and Ponyboy flinches back on instinct.

Darry freezes.

"Shoot, Pony, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, I swear I didn't mean to scare you." His voice is soft and careful now; he's talking like he would to a scared child on the street who's missing his parents and scared of the big stranger talking to him.

Oh.

"I'm sorry, Pony." His voice is pleading and he's forcing tears back because he knows it won't help anything if he starts crying now. He's apologising for so much more than just taking his jacket off and they both know it, but Ponyboy won't meet his eyes. He looks anywhere but at Darry, his face drawing back awkwardly as his shoe tries to make a hole in the floor.

"S'fine Darry, I know you didn't mean to."

Pony may say it's fine, but nothing about their situation is fine.

Darry starts noticing. Every time he pulls a chair back. When he wanders out of the kitchen with a knife. A quick hair-ruffle without warning.

It all feels violent. Reminiscent of that night that gets further away with every day that goes by but still haunts Darry's mind the moment he closes his eyes.

And he's trying, he's really trying, to make sure Pony knows he doesn't mean it. Blubbering out apologies, moving slower, announcing actions.

None of it's enough.

Ponyboy doesn't seem to spend any time at home anymore. He's always out. With Cathy or Curly or Mark or even Bryon, who seems to hate him for some reason Darry can't wrap his head around.

He gets home right for dinner and hardly says a word.

It's Darry's fault, if course. No matter how much he apologises, no matter how much he tries to take back all the stupid yelling (and that night, that goddamned night that haunts every night that's come after), it's never enough. Ponyboy isn't going to forgive him and, honestly? Darry can't blame him.

But they promised. They promised Soda that they would try and that they wouldn't hurt him anymore.

And now they’re back in the same place: unspoken tension strung tight in the air whenever Ponyboy and Darry are in the same room, Soda trying his best to dissuade it without taking sides.

Darry doesn't know what to do anymore.

Is there even anything of his family left to save? Did their last hope at functionality die with their parents on those train tracks ten months ago? How can he get his little brother to forgive him?

Does he even deserve forgiveness?

Soda's gone to sleep and Darry's own eyelids are heavy but Pony isn't home yet and he's waiting up.

Ponyboy's fine. He's come home late before, always in one piece. Darry himself used to come home at ungodly hours of the morning when he was still in highschool, and his parents never waited up.

No one waits up for their kids when they go out with friends.

But the moment Darry thinks about going to bed, Ponyboy appears in the park, drowning because Darry trusted him to cool down and come back.

Sue him for being nervous.

The door squeaks open as Ponyboy comes inside and Darry leaps to his feet.

"Where the hell've you been?"

Ponyboy shrugs his jacket off and hangs it on the hook by the door before answering.

"Out."

"Out," Darry repeats sarcastically, "like you always are these days. I'd be surprised if you spent a single minute in this house that wasn't so we could feed you! You ever think about your brothers when you're off on joyrides with Curly Shepard – don't look so surprised, you know I talk to Tim –"

"If you know where I am all the time then you don't gotta worry about it, do you?"

"Yes, I do hafta worry about it because you’re my little brother and Curly Shepard is nothing but trouble."

"Like you ain't friends with Tim–"

"That’s different and you know it. I don’t know how you'd even know who I talk to since you never spend any time at home anyway, but–"

"You ever think that maybe I don’t wanna come home because all I ever get for doin' it is you hollerin' at me? Oh, it's all better now 'cause you apologise fer yellin' all day, but that don't change the fact that you do!"

"What else am I supposed to do? You know damn well we can't keep tearin' Soda apart and God knows you ain't puttin' in any of the effort. Tell me, Pony, what do you want me to do? 'Cause that's all I do, aint it? Just follow your every–"

"I want you to be a better brother!"

A beat of silence.

Ponyboy's breathing quickly, his chest shaking, and Darry can hear the tears he won't let fall.

"D'you remember when I lost your football a year ago?" His voice is fragile, tense, barely audible over the silence that's rushing through Darry's ears. "The one the whole team had signed. You hated me for days. Then we bounced back a week later without even a sorry. And now–" His voice breaks and a faint hiccup makes it through his defences. It takes all that Darry has not to wrap his arms around his little brother "–now ya can't even say two sentences without a sorry bein' in the middle of them and I'm sick of it! I'm sick of it because I ain't fragile and I ain't gonna break if ya tell me to do my homework! I just didn't want you on my case all the time, but even that's better than whatever this is.

"You wanna know why I'm always with Curly? 'Cause he calls me an idiot when I mess things up and he wrestles with me and only says sorry when he actually hurts me. 'Cause he don't treat me like I'm made of glass. And I'm not!"

Ponyboy ends his rant with a little stomp that looks so absurdly childish after their fight that Darry almost laughs.

But it's a stark reminder of the fact that Ponyboy is just a kid. He's just a kid and he's gone through about as much as Darry, who still feels unprepared for it. Ponyboy's fourteen but he isn't, not really. Fourteen-year-olds don't have to worry about their friends crumpling under streetlights or drinking so aggressively they end up in a hospital bed they can't pay for. They don't have to worry about carrying out their best friend's dying wish.

Ponyboy's sick and tired of everyone around him treating him like a kid when he can't really be called one anymore because kids are innocent and what part of Ponyboy can be called innocent right now? He's gone through enough loss to know what he can handle and how he should cope, and yet everyone's assumed he doesn't because he's a scrawny little kid.

Darry walks – stumbles – over to the couch and sinks down into it. He rubs his eyes with the palms of his hands and runs a hand down his face.

He can't look Pony in the eyes, not now. Not if he really wants to say it right. Instead he stares holes into the couch in front of him, trying his best to find where to start.

"God, I–" He cuts himself off with a sigh. "I'm so sorry, Pony. You're right. It's stupid, I wanted to protect you from the world, at first, make sure you got outta here." He laughs humourlessly. "Can't believe I didn't realise how pointless it was. You can't protect someone from the world they live in. Then I wanted to protect you from myself, which was even stupider, I don't even know what I was trying to do, but I was trying–"

He's cut off by a small body – too small, hasn't he been eating? – ramming into him as Ponyboy sits down on the couch next to him.

"I know," Ponyboy whispers as his arms snake around his older brother, his head buried in Darry's shoulder. "You're tryin' and you ain't perfect." He takes a deep breath. "And I also know I ain't exactly helped much."

Darry gives a breathless laugh. "It's fine, Pony. I wasn't a saint at fourteen either."

He wraps an arm around Ponyboy.

"We'll figure this out, someday, right?"

"'Course we will." Ponyboy's voice is muffled by Darry's shirt so he turns his head to awkwardly look up at him. "We did that thousand-piece puzzle that one time, remember? We're invincible."

He laughs again and ruffles Ponyboy's hair.

"Fuck yeah we are."

[frommybedroom]

idk why the outsiders insta just quietly changed alex’s debut date on their caption and then didn’t make a separate announcement (at the time of writing). i guess maybe they thought people wouldn’t notice it? severely underestimated the fanbase lol

[diskusaurus]

My biggest issue in Epic the Musical is Odysseus, actually. In this essay, I will....

[specific-dreamer]

possessive and protective cherry you are so near and dear to me and me only

“last week five socs jumped him in the park […]” / “not all of those guys are bad”

“your boyfriend was the ringleader” / “johnny must’ve done something”

there’s a part of her that knows damn well johnny wouldn’t had to do anything. she knows her friends and most of all her boyfriend. she knows they would indeed jump a random kid. but they’re all she knows.

something about how the boys would probably tell the girls that whatever greaser they jumped had it coming because of xyz reason. something about ponyboy challenging that belief and forcing her to realise that it is entirely possible they made those excuses up and they jumped those kids for no reason besides they wanted to have fun.

something about how even though cherry is realizing this her first instinct is to defend what’s hers. “not all of those guys are bad” your right pony there are some shitty socs out there but not mine. “johnny must’ve done something” my boys wouldn’t go after him and be that brutal if he hadn’t done something to agitate them he probably egged them on.

“this may come as a surprise but we have troubles you’ve never even heard of” shes deflecting here. her entire worldview has just been turned on its head but she doesn’t really want to think about the boys have been lying to her and the other girls so she deflects. she forces pony to try and feel remorse for them

[funkle420]

a great way to combat genAI in the future would be educating kids (and teens and college students and all ppl) on art way more.

[rbtlvr]

actually u know what. would anyone want to like. are music betas a thing. would anyone want to do that. like listen to stuff and be liek Yeah this sounds like a real song ppl would listen to. or mmm no it needs some more work boss. i really just do covers rn but i . would like a second eye (ear?) bc i do not trust my own judgement of my stuff la;jfkldjsalkf

[khrysostomos]

quick fire "popping shots off to keep the rent low" opinions on a monday:

seeing more and more people disgruntled with the musical fans isn't surprising. the anon ask at the gift exchange blog isn't a surprise to me and as long as musical fans keep being total cunts to pre-existing and book/movie only fans, i think more and more resentment will continue. i also think given the changes and musical fans attitudes, this is warranted. it's also another solid reason that musical fans should solely stick to their own tag rather than be in the general tag.

to that point as well, musical fandom trying to force people to acknowledge it's choices as being singularly good and correct doesn't help things and too many non black people keep insisting black dallas as being good while ignoring actual black people who object to it is astounding. more than one person has insinuated or outright stated that a black performer wouldn't be able to routinely do a performance with police brutality nightly which is bonkers when we actively make our own art confronting this. the way they did dallas was cowardly and bad.

almost every identity headcanon that's popular on tumblr is bad and offensive. making the curtises, noted church goers, jewish in the most racist way possible is not helping this. (hint: invoking the holocaust in your post about how they're weird backwards immigrants is wild! not to mention it's a clearly written to cheaply mine for angst!) the musical also did this in the laziest, stupidest manner that's also very racist as well.

the "johnny is a latino man" post that's been floating around is a prime example of someone not understanding American history and people praising that post really reinforces that fact. it's a super frustrating post on particular bc the op just grabbed things from wikipedia with zero understanding of even brown v board of education.

steve randle is not important to the narrative at all. that's why he is routinely cut from things. socs being cut down in the movie was smart whereas their presence in the musical is often unnecessary and closer to grease than the outsiders.

[alaskan-wallflower]

is it true that brody and his 1st understudy are stepping back this week from shows? i keep looking at the accuser’s ig story and there’s just screenshots saying brody isn’t gonna be in the show at all this week. does anyone have speculation on this? where are these people getting their sources from?

is there anyone willing to talk about this and share opinions? because i’m twitching and i kinda need some reinforcing rn because im so conflicted

[qprpbj]

plz do the internalized homophobia one for the people. darry/paul are soooo river phoenix and keanu reeves in my own private idaho coded it’s insane.

oh they’re both coming at some point #trust. i need u to elaborate on this btw! idk who they are LOL

[maddyscrsideblog]

For the first time in over three years I miss a live cr episode and it was this fucking episode?? The universe punished me for missing my alarms this morning

[nashmusicguide]

TPAC announces 45th Anniversary Broadway season featuring six Nashville premieres and two-week engagements of HAMILTON and Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

A storybook season awaits as the nonprofit Tennessee Performing Arts Center® announces its 2025-26 HCA Healthcare/TriStar Health Broadway at TPAC season, presented in partnership with Nissan and Farm Bureau Health Plans, as part of its 45th Anniversary. The upcoming season features six Nashville premieres, plus the return of a classic fairy tale and the revolutionary re-telling of American…

[ratatatastic]

i think my favourite thing is how increasingly agitated a player gets when defence does their job

if theres anything im particularly surprised by its the fact that oel got shaken about like a ragdoll by big rig and didnt raise to the bait at ALL because that mans one of the biggest hot heads on this team

so it is true what they say... cats can be disciplined...

that being said disciplined... to a certain extent... the smile as maroon gets seperated from really says it all... never change oel never change

later on in the first (after that first altercation with oel) maroon does in fact plow him down ignoring the puck in the process and oel for the most part doesnt engage. that highkick though? rockettes perfection hes got the legs of a dancer babey

florida panthers @ boston bruins game 3 | 5.10.24

note: do you think big rig got fomo from game 2 because he got kicked out early and couldnt rough it out w the boys so he picked oel to hound until he gave him a fight (he did not) because oel is now apparently a law abidding citizen which is so rich considering hes ranked 5th in PIM on the cats this regular season with a whopping 76

i know what you are (a criminal) (x)

[specific-dreamer]

and when i write a bob x cherry fic that follows their relatinship begining to end then what

[moreaujeans]

my toxic trait is the way i physically grind my teeth every time i see a post comparing the wicked book and “movie” instead of “musical” for something that is not exclusive to the movie & also the movie is still a musical