The 1967 novel and 1983 film of the coming-of-age drama, The Outsiders, has recently been made into a musical. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the production was postponed. “Chicago’s Goodman Theatre has revealed plans for its 2021 season, which will include the premiere of the new stage musical The Outsiders. This play was originally scheduled to begin performances beginning on June 20, according to broadway.com. The Saugus Theatre is also working on performing the play The Outsiders.

The Outsiders story describes the situations and consequences that kids go through, seen through the character, Ponyboy’s, perspective. Battles between the wealthier kids and the underprivileged kids occur during Ponyboy’s life. The Outsiders includes themes such as friendship and holding on to hope during the struggles of life that the youth face every day.

A ninth-grader at Saugus, Sabina Spurgin, read the book and watched the movie and said, “I would enjoy a musical of The Outsiders because I would like to see how they portray the story in songs and how they put emotion into the art of acting. Musicals in my opinion are fun and more lively than movies or a book, so it would personally be more fun.”

The book has been made into a movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola and is an adaptation of the novel written by S.E. Hinton. The film’s cast included Thomas Howell, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, and Diane Lane. This movie received positive comments from critics and singled out Ralph Macchio’s performance. At the box office, this film made $33.7 million on a $10 million budget.

Since the film was so successful, years later the story was made into a play. The Outsiders was set to premiere from June 20 through August 2, 2020 at the Goodman’s Albert Theatre. Broadway.com claims, “As a result of the coronavirus crisis, the season of eight productions will begin in 2021 when it is deemed safe for audiences, artists, and staff.”

Due to the virus, the Goodman theater has said earlier that they aren’t planning on performing at least until the fall. It looks like they will continue to keep their doors closed until it is safe to open again. Chicagotribune.com notes, “Falls said ‘the theater remains committed to these four projects and looks forward to the day when we can welcome them back to our stages.’”

The Goodman Theater has not announced any firm plans for these productions, but their 2020-21 season remains and they hope to produce most or even all of the shows during that season. Since the COVID-19 crisis, the Chicago theater area and other performing arts venues have had to close. This was hard for them because they had planned to produce some of the shows since all of them except The Outsiders were mainly ready to go. They had a reliable audience that would come in the summer but couldn’t due to the virus.

The Theater of Youth has canceled their production of The Outsiders that was set to be shown on March 14 through April 5, 2020. Theatreofyouth.com addresses, “Due to the urgent and more restrictive mandates regarding COVID-19 by the New York State Governor and our local health agencies, all remaining performances of The Outsiders are canceled.” Ticket purchasers will need to be in contact with the administrative staff regarding their tickets.

Saugus’s Theatre also was awarded DTASC wins. Out of over 80 schools that participated, Saugus won third place overall. The first place varsity Saugus musical was Waitress, first place varsity large comedy was Darcy’s Cinematic Life, second place varsity student written was Internal Conflict, and fourth place varsity large drama was Proof.

Unfortunately, theaters have had to close their doors, canceling and postponing their shows that the casts and crew have worked tirelessly on. This has left the audience, theaters, and performers devastated. Saugus High is able to continue making plays through DTASC and will be performing their production of The Outsiders virtually.

Here are their DTASC videos: