In a 2024 season when Broadway musicals opened and closed with dizzying rapidity, “The Outsiders” was almost the sole profitable survivor. How did it avoid the carnage? Reason No. 1: It was an adaptation of a coming-of-age story by S.E. Hinton that has long been part of the educational curriculu m. Many Americans have real affection for “The Outsiders,” which tells the story of the working-class Greasers of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who fight with the snarky, preppy Socs from the other side of the metaphorical tracks. It’s all akin to the Jets and the Sharks in “West Side Story.” Reason No. 2: The 1983 Francis Ford Coppola movie, also a source, established the story, written by Hinton when she was just 16 years old and had a teenager’s sympathies for these characters, as a kind of swoon-over-the-handsome-young-dudes experience. The astonishingly talented cast of that proto-Brat Pack film included Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise, all still early in their careers. The Broadway musical certainly continued that legacy in its casting, and so does the national tour. All of this goes to explain why, eating my toasted sub at a neighboring Potbelly’s before the show, I saw table after table of excited teenage girls with one parent or another. That is the show’s core demographic. It’s in the “Newsies” lane, you might reasonably say. I’d have thought it could have supported a lot longer than a two-week run here; the New York bookers should have more confidence in our city. Reason No. 3: The organic quality of director Danya Taymor’s staging, a very arresting, movement-focused experience that does not rely too much on technology but mostly uses the bodies of the very athletic young cast to build its stage pictures and move from moment to moment as it tells the story of the three parentless Curtis brothers who start out with all kinds of disadvantages but who come to see that their mutual love is their collective strength. Reason No. 4: The show, which was originally scheduled to try out at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago before COVID put paid to that, uses a highly emotive and rootsy score penned by the Austin, Texas-based band Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance), who worked here with Justin Levine, also the orchestrator and original musical director.  The score was, you might say, written by outsiders, at least in terms of Broadway. For me, although it feels more like an album than a score and does not have the internal variety and lyrical sophistication you’ll find in truly great musicals, it certainly matches the desired milieu. There is only one true standout song, but it is a real blockbuster, theatrically: “Great Expectations.” Watching this piece for a second time, I was struck by how much it relies on its ensemble. The show has a Theater for Young Audiences sensibility in many ways, which is hardly surprising since it was based on the imaginative work of one so young. The characters are mostly idealized, the action is predictable, and its core conflicts derivative of those in the minds of most American teenagers in the middle of the 20th century. It’s a sentimental piece, no question, and while Emma Hearn, who plays Cherry, is a fine singer and actor, it takes a bit of swallowing to believe her as a high school kid. But that’s really a given with how this material is approached; the staging and choreography would, frankly, be too much for those without training. Emma Hearn, Nolan White and the cast of the North American tour of "The Outsiders," in Chicago at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. (Matthew Murphy)Corbin Drew Ross and Nolan White in the North American tour of "The Outsiders," in Chicago at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. (Matthew Murphy)Bonale Fambrini and Nolan White in the North American tour of "The Outsiders," in Chicago at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. (Matthew Murphy)The cast of the North American tour of "The Outsiders," in Chicago at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. (Matthew Murphy)Show Caption1 of 4Emma Hearn, Nolan White and the cast of the North American tour of "The Outsiders," in Chicago at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. (Matthew Murphy)Expand But both the musicalization, and this very skilled director whose career first blossomed in Chicago, throw the material in the hands of actors who mostly read as in their 20s and say, in essence, that you are the storytellers here, find the inner-kid inside. And so they do. The touring cast certainly lives up to all the requirements of the piece, from their macho good looks to their inner sensitivity (or so it seems) to the quality of their voices. I suspect many in the audience will have different favorites, but Nolan White is an especially fine Ponyboy Curtis and Bonale Fambrini a most appealing Johnny Cade. If you know the book, you’ll know that Sodapop Curtis, as selfless as the day is long, is the moral conscience of the story, the one who tells the others what actions matter the most and although Corbin Drew Ross does not get to throw himself around the stage as vividly and dramatic as many of his colleagues, he captures what I think mattered most to Hinton when she wrote this story, and also what matters most to this show. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. [email protected] Review: “The Outsiders” (3 stars) When: Through Feb. 22 Where: Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes Tickets: $69-$200 at broadwayinchicago.com ...read more read less