INTERVIEW: Inside The Outsiders: Exploring Conflict, Character, and Connection with Jackson Reagin
05/19—24 @ Proctors Theatre, Schenectady
Photos by Matthew Murphy
“This is just a huge phenomenon in New York. It’s a show that everybody knows about.”
In 2024 while planning a trip to New York City, actor Jackson Reagin knew that The Outsiders would be at the top of his list of shows to see. The four-time Tony-winning show took home the esteemed Best Musical award that year, and Reagin wasn’t going to miss out on experiencing the show for himself.
With a laugh, he recalls that he wanted to sit in the audience and sound like one of those keen-eyed attendees who could point out all the adaptation’s similarities and differences. But when tearing apart his college bookshelf, he was astonished to find that he already owned a copy of The Outsiders.
Inside the cover was his middle school library’s barcode.
“I was like, ‘I don’t know how I have this, but I have it,’” he retells. “I don’t remember reading it in middle school, but I must have been interested enough to take it home at some point!”
Seeing the musical in New York City left a lasting impression on him, even before his casting in the National Tour. “The musical just blew me away,” he says. “This is just a huge phenomenon in New York. It’s a show that everybody knows about.”
He doesn’t deny the full-circle forces seemingly at play. He reveals that even this interview is almost to the date of when he found out that he had been cast in the National Tour as the enigmatic Paul Holden.
Reagin’s copy of The Outsiders got its spine cracked once more as he prepared for a deep dive into S.E. Hinton’s writing to better understand his character of Paul. He underlined every scene that Paul appeared in, and the character’s omnipresence throughout the narrative became clear to him.
“There’s a reason all of this is happening,” says Reagin. “I always found that in every instance, Paul is just a follower, especially being second in command to Bob… he’s just this high school boy who had his best friend die. He's never had to make a tangible decision within the friend group, so what does he do now?”
The ‘rumble’ sequence is his longest speaking part. However, as the role was expanded for the stage, Reagin got to explore the character’s vital significance to the story. Paul represents the fracture between the two groups: the potential future that his former friend Darrel lost and the cruel divide that forms between social classes.
“He’s angry. He’s feeling all of these things, so they’re going to go, as they say in one of the songs, ‘take an eye for an eye,’” says Reagin. “It’s really cool to find these pathways of how to get into those scenes, especially for my character, who doesn’t have a lot of lines or explanations, but you get background on Darrel’s and Paul’s friendship.”
Despite playing a character steeped in angst and conflict, Reagin describes himself as a ‘happy person.’ The graduate from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music is originally from Seattle, Washington. He grew up playing sports, first developing an interest in theater during middle school.
In high school, when he had to pick between a year of football or theater, he chose theater. He “never played a sport again after that.” His other credits have included the National Tour of ELF and All Shook Up, The Importance of Being Earnest, and the U.S Debut of Ragtime in Concert with the Cincinnati POPS.
The rumble may be Paul’s most intense sequence and combine both Reagin’s athleticism and his theatrical talents, but he highlights the ‘Friday at the Drive-In’ number as a moment the audience should take note of. Fast-paced with rich set design, the scene from beginning to end is a visual treat.
“There are so many moving parts, so many segments, and different things happening in it,” he describes. “It’s so satisfying to watch and such an amazing number, all with music, sound, dancing, and lighting. It’s the most exciting part of the show, to me.”
Performing such a physically and emotionally intense show for eight shows a week requires an unbreakable bond off-stage. The cast’s closeness in age and conscientious effort to build team rapport created real-life friendship, despite the fictitious division between the Socs and the Greasers.
“It's really nice and uncommon that you get a full cast of people that are right around the same age,” says Reagin. “Going to Tulsa, there were so many opportunities that they specifically sought out time for us to bond.”
The Tulsa trip was a pivotal moment for the cast and crew. Before rehearsals started, the cast was flown in to see where they filmed the movie, including the location of the house, the drive-in, the rumble scenes, and the warehouse that inspired their set design. The cast met the residents of Tulsa and S.E. Hinton.
“It made a world of difference for me,” says Reagin. “I feel like a lot of the time when you do shows like this — unless they’re based on a true story — you can feel the connection onstage, but you don’t get a sense of what it was really like.
“Everything that’s a part of that town is a part of our show. It was incredible to meet people from there who were so excited for us to be in Tulsa and to tell the story. The Outsiders is everything to them.”
After a day full of photoshoots and seeing the sights of Tulsa, from the mansions that inspired the Socs to the railroad that infamously split the town in two, the night always ended in a cast gathering.
“We’d end the night with a family-style dinner,” says Reagin. “We all felt that it was really special right away, and we bonded with our excitement of doing this.”
The Outsiders is running from May 19 to 24 at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, where the cast is eager to showcase the hard work that has gone into making the National Tour production such a crowd-favorite sensation.
“I still have so many days, eight months in, where I still feel so lucky to do what I’m doing and to be with the show,” reflects Reagin on the journey that led him here. “This story has become such a huge part of my life now.”
For tickets and more information, visit www.atproctors.org