In an early scene of âThe Outsidersââthe new Broadway musical based on S. E. Hintonâs 1967 novel and on Francis Ford Coppolaâs 1983 movie, directed by Danya Taymor, with a book by the always-busy Adam Rapp, with Justin Levine, and music and lyrics by Levine, Jonathan Clay, and Zach Chanceâa young, searching kid looks up adoringly at Paul Newmanâs face beaming out from a movie screen. Heâs Ponyboy (Brody Grant), and his life in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is circumscribed by constant skirmishes between his group of outsiders, the Greasers, and the townâs semi-fascist preppies, the Socs. The story is dense with the kind of tragedy that leaves audience members sniffling in their seats. Even when individual lines of dialogue swing dangerously close to corniness, Taymorâs painterly direction and Rick and Jeff Kupermanâs choreography give the show a glow of hard-earned authentic reminiscence.âV.C. (Bernard B. Jacobs; open run.)
Classical Music
With more than fifty concerts over three days in Brooklyn, this yearâs Long Play Festival, organized by Bang on a Can, celebrates contemporary music in general and minimalism in particular. The latter includes Steve Reichâs âMusic for 18 Musicians,â David Langâs haunting âthe little match girl passion,â and Philip Glassâs Piano Ãtudes (in new arrangements for accordion). The programming honors past path-breakers while making space for newer ones, such as the microtonalist Peter Adriaansz and the jazz experimentalist Josh Johnson. The flutist Claire Chase, who is on a multiyear odyssey stretching her instrumentâs possibilities, elegantly bridges the two worlds, with excerpts from a new piece by minimalismâs white-bearded forefather Terry Riley.âOussama Zahr (Various venues; May 3-5.)
Jazz
Since Kamasi Washingtonâs appropriately titled 2015 album, âThe Epic,â a hundred-and-seventy-three-minute triple disk of far-reaching, mind-expanding spiritual jazz, the saxophonist has only grown more tremendous, in sound and stature. He was already a fixture on the L.A. music scene, committing to the jazz collective West Coast Get Down and working with the experimental label Brainfeeder, when he played a pivotal role as a key session musician for Kendrick Lamarâs âTo Pimp a Butterfly.â These days, Washington is one of the most ambitious bandleaders out there, and his playing is as forceful as his vision. This show kicks off the release of his new LP, âFearless Movement,â which he has referred to as his âdance album,â shifting focus from celestial bodies to physical ones.âSheldon Pearce (Beacon Theatre; May 4.)
Movies
The director Jane Schoenbrun is making a notable career dramatizing young people losing and finding themselves in mass-media rabbit holes. In their previous feature, âWeâre All Going to the Worldâs Fair,â from 2021, a teen-ager seeks freedom and faces danger in an all-consuming interactive video game. Schoenbrunâs new film, âI Saw the TV Glow,â set mainly in the nineteen-nineties, is centered on two lonely suburban adolescents, Owen (played younger by Ian Foreman and older by Justice Smith), and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), who are obsessed with a TV series about teen superheroes. Owen, an introvert who craves a feeling of belonging, riskily imagines himself into the seriesâwhich inspires the rebellious Maddy to take reckless action. Schoenbrun tells their stories in images that blend eerie chills and tender warmth while keeping the object of their obsession in skeptical perspective.âRichard Brody (In theatrical release on May 3.)
Pick Three
Every theatre in town seems to be opening a show; here are Helen Shawâs top picks.
1. Amy Herzogâs oddly buoyant slice-of-dying play, âMary Jane,â is on Broadway at last. A single mother (Rachel McAdams, still feeling her way) raises a child with terrible medical burdens; wry and humorous womenâplayed by theatrical treasures like April Matthis, Susan Pourfar, and Brenda Wehleâhelp her maintain her spirit. The show (at the Samuel J. Friedman) is full of grief, but the sensation of it goes up and up.
2. In Shaina Taubâs rip-roaring musical âSuffsâ (at the Music Box), Taub herself plays Alice Paul, who rallied American suffragists in a new, âunladylikeâ fashion; Nikki M. James plays Ida B. Wells, who decried the stifling whiteness of Paulâs movement; and Jenn Colella plays Carrie Chapman Catt, an older leader whose more conciliatory tactics also helped secure the 19th Amendment. The musical succeeds at a thrilling, all-hands-on-deck level: âSuffsâ readies you to both look inward and march on.
3. Virginia Woolfâs novel âOrlando,â in which an Elizabethan nobleman (Taylor Mac) lives for centuries, changing in their course from man to woman, is a bear to adapt, but Sarah Ruhlâs 2010 play manages it with a skaterâs grace. Sheâs abetted immensely by Will Davisâs gorgeous, gender-liquid production, for Signature Theatre, and Macâs laughing delivery, but I was most moved by Nathan Lee Grahamâs Queen Elizabeth, half in emerald tracksuit, half in golden farthingale, gliding forward out of death for one last kiss from her favorite.
P.S. Good stuff on the Internet: