A Tony Award-winning musical built on one of the most enduring coming-of-age novels in American literature is rolling into downtown Denver next month. The Outsiders National Tour will play the Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre inside the Denver Center for the Performing Arts from September 8 through September 27, with single tickets ranging from $53.00 to $177.00.
The stage adaptation draws from S.E. Hinton's 1967 novel, which she began writing at age 16 while attending Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, and from Francis Ford Coppola's landmark 1983 film version, according to Britannica. As CBS News Colorado reported in cast interviews tied to the Denver engagement, the production carries its Tony Award-winning pedigree into every stop on its national run. The Buell Theatre, the primary Denver venue for high-capacity Broadway touring shows, becomes the latest arena for the story of rival teen gangs, the Greasers and the Socs.
A Tony Sweep and a Recouped Broadway Run
The show's credentials are hard to overstate. At the 77th Annual Tony Awards in June 2024, The Outsiders won four honors out of 12 nominations, including Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical for Danya Taymor, Best Lighting Design, and Best Sound Design. Taymor became only the sixth woman in Broadway history to win the Tony for Best Direction of a Musical.
The original Broadway production also achieved a financial milestone rare among new musicals: it recouped its full $22 million capitalization by January 2026, after 744 performances and more than $121 million in gross ticket sales at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. The creative team behind that success includes a book co-written by Adam Rapp and Justin Levine, choreography by Rick and Jeff Kuperman, and an original folk-rock score from Jamestown Revival's Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance alongside Levine.
Who's Leading the Denver Cast
The touring production's principal cast features Nolan White as Ponyboy Curtis, Bonale Fambrini as Johnny Cade, Tyler Jordan Wesley as Dallas Winston, Travis Roy Rogers as Darrel Curtis, Corbin Drew Ross as Sodapop Curtis, and Emma Hearn as Cherry Valance. The national tour officially launched in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in October 2025 following technical rehearsals in Buffalo, New York.
Free Tickets and Mental Health Resources for Students
Beyond the box office numbers, the touring production has expanded The Stay Gold Project, an educational initiative sponsored nationally by the SONIC Foundation. The program funds 2,500 free tickets for middle and high school students across tour cities, along with free educational study guides for classrooms — an effort created during the Broadway run to keep ticket costs from shutting students out of the theater.
Because the musical stages intense depictions of youth violence, domestic abuse, and suicide, the production provides content advisories and has partnered with Crisis Text Line to offer free, confidential 24/7 crisis support by texting HOME to 741741, according to the show's official website.
Part of a Packed Denver Performing Arts Calendar
The Outsiders arrives at the Buell directly on the heels of the national touring production of Spamalot, which wrapped up its own run at the same venue August 11 through August 23, as per Hoodline. At the same time, Phamaly Theatre Company is staging the world premiere of “504: The Musical” at the adjacent Kilstrom Theatre, part of a Denver Performing Arts Complex that spans 12 acres and houses ten distinct performance spaces.
The Buell Theatre itself seats 2,843 patrons and features interior walls built from more than 8,000 pieces of Lyons, Colorado sandstone, designed to optimize acoustics for amplified musical performances. It opened in 1991 inside the renovated shell of Denver's former Municipal Auditorium Arena. With a three-week run, a Tony-winning pedigree, and a built-in mission to reach teenage audiences, The Outsiders gives Denver theatergoers a chance to see a genuine modern Broadway phenomenon land in their own backyard.
