INTERVIEW: From the University of Oklahoma to an Oklahoma story on Broadway
Photo: In The Outsiders, one gang is called the “Socs,” and the actors portraying them are: top row, Barton Cowperthwaite (Brill), Dan Berry (Paul), RJ Higton (Chet), Kevin William Paul (Bob), Emma Pittman (Cherry Valance) and Melody Rose (Beverly), plus, front row, Sean Harrison Jones (Tripp). Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy / Provided by BBB with permission.
Dan Berry, who plays Paul in The Outsiders on Broadway, has been having quite the memorable year. His story is one of those rare dream-come-true tales of an actor bouncing around the country before impressing the right folks in the audition room. No he has landed a coveted spot in the Broadway company of a Tony-winning musical.
“It’s an ever-changing, growing beast, but it’s a good time,” Berry said in a recent interview, only a couple days after injuring himself in the show. “I was not with the production in La Jolla back in California. I graduated from University of Oklahoma in 2023, and then I kind of went home and stayed with my parents in Upstate New York. We live in Poughkeepsie, New York, which is like an hour north of the city. I stayed there for a few months and started auditioning. Nothing was really landing for the first few months.”
That dry spell changed when Berry secured a job in Beverly, Massachusetts, in a new Elvis biopic musical. When he was performing in that piece, he submitted a couple of audition tapes to The Outsiders team. He had heard that this beloved classic, which began as a book and was then adapted into a movie, was gaining buzz in the theatrical space. The show depicts the back-and-forth rivalry between two warring gangs in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“I knew it was a long shot,” he said of his chances of making it to Broadway. “I knew there was a lot of guys going in for it, but I got some callbacks. And actually on the last Monday I was at Elvis, I drove from basically Boston to New York for my final callback for this thing, and I heard back maybe a day or two later. The rest is history. I had a reading in December to meet the cast and the creatives, and then we started rehearsals in like February.”
Obviously Berry has a connection to Oklahoma, given that he’s a graduate of the University of Oklahoma musical theater program. He also has a history with The Outsiders, having read the original book by S.E. Hinton when he was a teenager.
“It was assigned reading I think when I was in seventh or eighth grade, so I knew the story,” Berry said. “And my mom loved the movie, loved the actors in the movie, so I definitely grew up with this show. I don’t know if it was the catalyst of how I live my life or anything, but I was fully aware of all the characters and the storyline that took place. So it was pretty easy to submit an audition, especially when you know how good something is. I was really excited if I could be a part of it.”
Berry is still impressed by how Hinton was only 16 years old when she wrote The Outsiders, and that authenticity of a young person’s voice comes through in her words. For the Broadway stage, there have been some changes, but the heart of the original story is still intact.
“The story was written in the first person through Ponyboy’s eyes, and it was written just like a kid because she was a kid,” he said. “It’s so truthful, and the things that he notices in the show and how he describes his brothers or his friends or even sunsets, it’s very childlike wonder in a way that is so realistic and so grounded. It works so well. It packs a lot more punch.”
Berry added: “Our show is very much a memory play. Ponyboy talks to the audience. He’s very much the narrator. It’s very much like you’re reading the book through the first-person perspective, so I think the way that we utilize that in the show is really beautiful. We really get to see the world through Ponyboy and not just the world that it actually is. It can also be a flawed story in that sense, too, because you’re only seeing one person’s perspective of the storyline, but I just think it’s really interesting how we use lights and sounds and dreamy sequences to dictate that this is one person’s journey through this world.”
Berry and the company recently crossed the 400th performance mark, which is impressive given how volatile the Broadway business can be. The show won the Best Musical award at the Tonys last year, and that achievement has made it a perpetual hot ticket in Midtown Manhattan. In the show, the actor mostly plays Paul, who is a member of the “Soc” gang, but he has also portrayed the two brothers Sodapop and Darrel Curtis.
“So I’ve seen the show at every angle,” Berry said. “I think after 50-60 shows you kind of get a little deeper, especially when you get to go play the brothers for a little bit because they have more emotional richness in their characters. You kind of figure out, ‘Oh, this line could mean this as well, or this moment hits a lot harder tonight than it did before. Why is that?’ Given how many wonderful understudies that we have, the show is constantly changing and meeting everyone where they’re at on that day and telling the best story you can within how you’re feeling and how the atmosphere of the backstage is and everything, just leaning into all those things. If you play it truthfully, you’re going to find so many layers to the piece.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Outsiders, featuring Dan Berry, continues at the Jacobs Theatre on Broadway. Click here for more information and tickets.
