'Outsiders' wins Best Musical, three other Tony Awards (2024)

“The Outsiders,” the adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s landmark novel, won the Tony Award for Best Musical on Sunday night at the 77th annual Tony Awards.

The musical, which had been nominated for 12 Tonys, won a total of four awards, including Best Director of a Musical for Danya Taymor; Best Lighting Design of a Musical, awarded to Brian MacDevitt and Hana S. Kim; and Best Sound Design of a Musical, won by Cody Spencer.

In accepting the Best Musical award, producer Michael Rego praised author Hinton, who attended the ceremony, saying, “Your story and its eternal message of love and family and ‘staying gold’ has changed all our lives.”

Taymor seemed genuinely surprised at winning Best Director; on the way to the podium, she had to remove her shoes, saying “I can’t walk in heels.”

Taymor said it was an honor to be among the nominees, which included a record number of women directors this year.

“Directing ‘The Outsiders’ changed my life,” Taymor said. She thanked her “brothers in creation” — book writers Adam Rapp and Justin Levine, and composers Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance, all Tony nominees — the cast and “the sickest design team” who created the “ultimate memory playground.”

Taymor also paid tribute to Hinton, “who at 16 wrote from her gut with such unstinting courage and honesty” to create the iconic story that is “The Outsiders.”

She also encouraged young women to pursue their dreams, saying, “What some might perceive as weakness or liability may be your superpower,” adding “Artistic risk yields rewards.”

The musical’s four awards made it one of the more decorated shows of the year and also spoke to the richness and diversity of the Broadway season, as no one production truly dominated the evening.

Only “Stereophonic,” the drama about a 1970s-era band trying to record an album as their personal lives come apart, earned more awards at this year’s ceremony than “The Outsiders.” It won five, including Best Play, Best Director of a Play, Best Featured Actor for Will Brill and sound design, out of a total of 13 nominations.

“Merrily We Roll Along,” a revival of the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical that flopped when it was originally presented, also took home four Tonys, including acting awards for Jonathan Groff and Daniel Ratliff, Best Revival of a Play and best orchestrations.

“Hell’s Kitchen,“ the jukebox musical built around the songs of Alicia Keys that had 13 nominations, ended up winning two awards. Maleah Joi Moon won Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical, beating out Oklahoma native Kelli O’Hara; and Kecia Lewis for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

“Suffs,” the musical about the women’s suffrage movement of the early 1900s, won two awards — Best Score and Best Book of a Musical — both of which were won by Shaina Taub, who also plays a leading role in the show.

Two actors more closely associated with television won the top dramatic acting awards. Sarah Paulson (“American Horror Story,” “Ratched“) won Best Actress in a Play for her work in “Appropriate,” while Jeremy Strong (“Succession”) won Best Actor in a Play for “An Enemy of the People.”

“The Outsiders” was the final nominee for Best Musical to perform during the Tony Awards ceremony, held at the David H. Koch Theater in New York City’s Lincoln Center. The performance was introduced by Angelina Jolie, one of the show’s main producers.

Cast members performed excerpts from the songs “Tulsa ‘67” and “Grease Got a Hold,” which featured Tony nominee Brody Grant as Ponyboy Curtis, Sky Lakota-Lynch as Johnny Cade and Joshua Boone as Dallas, along with an excerpt from the rumble scene, as the actors battled themselves bloody in the on-stage rain.