{"id":277022,"date":"2025-10-04T11:34:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T11:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/277022\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T11:34:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T11:34:15","slug":"a-book-with-tulsa-as-its-soul-the-outsiders-endures-with-musical-readings-galas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/277022\/","title":{"rendered":"A book with Tulsa as its ‘soul,’ ‘The Outsiders’ endures with musical, readings, galas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although long slicked-back hair may go in and out of fashion, worn blue jeans, broken-in motorcycle boots and plain T-shirts never really go out of style<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Likewise, Tulsa author S.E. Hinton’s<\/a> “The Outsiders” is experiencing a resurgence, but that doesn’t mean her landmark 1967 novel has ever really gone away.<\/p>\n

“That story is an American classic, as we know, and it hasn’t been out of print in all of these years. … It finds a new audience every year via the seventh- and eighth-grade students who are required to read it,” said Danny Boy O’Connor,<\/a> founder of The Outsiders House Museum in Tulsa.<\/p>\n

“I just think it’s a wonderfully told rite-of-passage story … and its (meaning) has actually evolved for me in so many different ways over the years.”<\/p>\n

In Hinton’s hometown of Tulsa,<\/a> where she set her iconic first novel and where Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola filmed the iconic 1983 movie adaptation<\/a>, the legacy of “The Outsiders” continues to grow with The Outsiders House Museum<\/a>, a filming location that O’Connor led efforts to save and revitalize; a new behind-the-scenes book about the making of the movie he is releasing soon; and his plans for another Tulsa museum devoted to Hinton’s other books<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even as it continues to play on Broadway<\/a>, the Tony Award-winning musical “The Outsiders”<\/a> \u2014 the latest successful adaptation of Hinton’s treasured tale \u2014 also is coming home to Tulsa. The national tour of the 2024 Tony winner for best musical is officially launching Oct. 7-12 at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center<\/a>, which Meg Gould described as “perfect synergy and deeply meaningful.”<\/p>\n

“The story was born in Tulsa, the movie filmed in Tulsa, and the musical made Tulsa more than a location but a true character. … Now it is going out into the world with Tulsa as its heart,” said Gould, executive director of Tulsa Film, Music, and Arts Office<\/a>, in an email.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s the story of a city that refused to fade into the background. Tulsa is the soul of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Hinton’s book alone has sold more than 15 million copies and been translated into at least 30 languages, it’s safe to say that influence of “The Outsiders”<\/a> has spread far beyond Tulsa, including down the Turner Turnpike into Oklahoma City, where the story is revving up local efforts to celebrated Banned Books Week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It just has such timeless themes in it. It may be even more timely today, just with some of the frustrations we can feel between the classes, with poverty and just how hard things can be financially for people,” said Daniel Chesney, library manager for OKC’s Belle Isle Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“There’s also just the elements of deciding, are we caring for our children? Are we caring for society in general? Are we caring for one another, or are we all just having to survive on our own? … Those are just always concerns for us.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The cast of “The Outsiders” includes, from left, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze and Tom Cruise. Francis Ford Coppola filmed the 1983 movie, based on Oklahoma author S.E. Hinton’s iconic book, in Tulsa.<\/p>\n

What is ‘The Outsiders’ about?<\/p>\n

Inspired by her experiences at Will Rogers High School, Susan “Susie” Eloise Hinton penned the tale of two rival Tulsa gangs \u2014 the poor Greasers and the privileged Socs (pronounced Soshs) \u2014 when she was still a teenager. She published “The Outsiders”<\/a> under her initials to keep male reviewers from knowing she was a woman and immediately dismissing her work.<\/p>\n

“A person who has not read the book and just goes in expecting a basic street drama might be surprised to read that there’s a lot of class commentary in the book. There’s a lot about violence, how we grow numb to violence and how violence i perpetuated in a cycle. Those things, I think, are just eternal aspects of human life, unfortunately, and particularly in urban life, where so many young people fall through the cracks of the social safety net,” said Steven Zoeller, events coordinator at OKC’s Full Circle Bookstore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I think that’s really the big reason that the story endures, is because underneath … the leather jackets and the denim and the lurid glamor of violence, you do have commentary on very real forces that continue to shape our world \u2014 and are probably going to continue shaping our world until the end of time.”<\/p>\n

The violence and realism of the story, which features teenagers smoking, cursing and drinking alcohol, has led to bans or proposed bans at various public schools<\/a> over the decades. People who look at the American Library Association’s lists of frequently challenged books<\/a> are often are surprised at the titles they find, Chesney said.<\/p>\n

“You’re going to always see a ton of titles like ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ by Maya Angelou, or ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,’ titles that are just like classics and canon critical. But there’s always somebody who still wants to raise issue with it,” he said. “I feel like ‘The Outsiders’ is one that people have such fond memories of. It’s great to just remind people that we should fight against banning books from all sides, because no one should get to decide what you get to read.”<\/p>\n

To kick off Banned Books Week<\/a>, the Metropolitan Library System<\/a> and Full Circle are ganging up for a series of “Outsiders”-theme events on Saturday, Oct. 4, including a classic car show and family-friendly celebration at 2:30 p.m. and a reading marathon from 6 p.m. until about midnight at Full Circle, where people will take turns reading the whole novel aloud from cover to cover. Banned Books Week 2025<\/a> is Oct. 5-11.<\/p>\n

All profits from copies of \u201cThe Outsiders\u201d sold at the marathon will go toward the Metropolitan Library System\u2019s Library Endowment Trust.<\/p>\n

“It just has all this synergy with things happening in the world today, from troubled youth to the challenging and banning of books to dwindling access to books in libraries. So, it really just seemed like the perfect storm of concepts,” Zoeller said.<\/p>\n

\"Director<\/p>\n

Director Francis Ford Coppola works with actors, from left, C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio and Matt Dillon on “The Outsiders.” Coppola filmed the 1983 movie, based on Oklahoma author S.E. Hinton’s iconic book, in Tulsa.<\/p>\n

How are ‘The Outsiders’ movie and musical continuing the story’s legacy?<\/p>\n

In 1980, Jo Ellen Misakian<\/a>, a librarian at the Lone Star School in Fresno, California, wrote to “The Godfather” director Coppola on behalf of her seventh- and eighth-grade students, requesting that he consider making a film adaptation “The Outsiders.” When Coppola read the book, he was moved to not only make the movie but to make it in Tulsa.<\/p>\n

Starring future A-listers C. Thomas Howell, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze and Tom Cruise, the 1983 movie’s popularity as a cult favorite has only grown over the decades.<\/p>\n

For O’Connor, a founding member of 1990s hip-hop hitmakers House of Pain, seeing the coming-of-age film as a teenager left an impression that never truly faded away: During a Tulsa tour stop in 2009, he discovered the rapidly deteriorating house that had been used to film several scenes in the movie. In his zeal to save it from demolition, he eventually moved to Tulsa, led a community effort to revive it and opened The Outsiders House Museum<\/a>, 731 N St. Louis Ave., in 2019.<\/p>\n

Both the book and the movie versions of “The Outsiders” have managed to “stay gold” over the decades as new generations discover the true-to-life story set in Tulsa.<\/p>\n

Like the book and film, \u201cThe Outsiders\u201d musical<\/a> is set in Tulsa in 1967 and focuses on young Greaser Ponyboy Curtis, his two older brothers and their chosen family of \u201coutsiders\u201d struggling to survive in a world of haves and have-nots.<\/p>\n

Counting Angelina Jolie<\/a> among its lead producers, the song-and-dance adaptation of “The Outsiders” features a book by Tony nominee Adam Rapp<\/a> with Tony winner Justin Levine<\/a>, with music and lyrics by Tony nominees Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance, of the Texas roots rock duo Jamestown Revival<\/a>, and Levine.<\/p>\n

After opening on Broadway to rave reviews, the stage version went on to win numerous honors, including four 2024 Tony Awards, ensuring that the story will continue to find potential fans in a whole new way.<\/p>\n

“It was my first musical, so I had no frame of reference,” O’Connor said. “They sing, they dance, they act. t’s visceral. You feel it. The story is being retold. It’s the same story, but there are some differences. And when you see the musical, the differences really work.”<\/p>\n

On Oct. 12, O’Connor<\/a> and The Outsiders House Museum Foundation will host in Tulsa the inaugural Stay Gold Gala<\/a>, featuring live music from Jamestown Revival and appearances by the cast of “The Outsiders” film and Broadway musical. The fundraiser will lay the ground work for his goal of eventually opening the Stay Gold Museum, dedicated to all of Hinton’s work.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 5, the longtime super-fan will reach a goal he never dreamed of as a kid: He will release his own book, “Staying Gold: The Oral History of The Outsiders<\/a>,” which he co-wrote with the Tulsa World’s Jimmie Tramel.<\/a><\/p>\n

“To be a small part of this legacy is incredible for me, because I get a front-row seat see it just keep growing and growing,” O’Connor told The Oklahoman.<\/p>\n

‘THE OUTSIDERS’ IN OKC AND TULSA<\/p>\n

‘THE OUTSIDERS’ OKC BANNED BOOK WEEK EVENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

‘THE OUTSIDERS’ THE MUSICAL TULSA TOUR LAUNCHTULSA’S THE OUTSIDERS HOUSE MUSEUM STAY GOLD GALA<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: ‘Timeless’ themes of ‘The Outsiders’ help it endure, remain relevant<\/a><\/p>\n