The Outsiders is a classic coming-of-age film based on S.E. Hinton’s book. It has inspired the Broadway musical, which won four Tony Awards in 2024, including Best Musical. Now, musical lovers in Southern California can catch the national tour, currently playing at The Pantages Theatre and coming soon to Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa.

Starring as Johnny Cade is Bonale Fambrini (Netflix’s Daredevil), who has evolved the character since his first time portraying him.

“When I was preparing to play Johnny, I was prepared to just play this quiet, timid wallflower, like in the corner,” Fambrini tells Nerd Reactor. “My Johnny has become more alive, if that makes sense. We have a number with all the greasers having fun. It’s literally just us greasers. And I remember that towards the first couple runs of the show, I used to play him as this more timid kid who would limp around, and now he’s been able to grow into this really fun, ‘I don’t have a care in the world.'”

Danya Taymor, the director of the original Broadway and national tour production, helped Fambrini make Johnny his own.

“I think with Danya’s guidance and everything and all this teamwork, I was able to, if anything, look at these existing pieces of context and say, ‘Oh, I like how Ralph Macchio’s Johnny does this,'” Fambrini said. “I love how Sky Lakota-Lynch does his Johnny, and I got to pick and choose and really make my own Johnny and really keep what resonated and was true to myself.”

Getting the role felt like a roller coaster ride for Fambrini when he first auditioned for The Outsiders Off-Broadway.

“I’d seen the movie in seventh grade as well, and then I actually auditioned for The Outsiders before it was even on Broadway,” he said. “I think it was a developing workshop. It was under a different director, same producers. But this was like, I want to say, eight or nine years ago. Made it to the very final round, and then ultimately they were like, ‘Hey, you’re too young.’

“And then now, 2025, it comes across my table again. Made it to the very finals. I’m like, ‘Alright, I’m giving this job everything. I’m like a hundred and ten percent.’ After three, four months of auditions, they ultimately said no again. ‘Damn!’ And ‘No.’ Dude, this destroyed me. Like broken. And then a week later they’re like, ‘Hey, actually, give it one more try.’ I come back in, I do my audition, and now I’m here talking to you, man.”

Tickets for The Outsiders are available online at The Pantages Theatre (September 30 – October 18, 2026) and Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa (October 20 – November 1, 2026).