Marietta native joins 'Outsiders' national tour cast

Local grad starring in 'The Outsiders' musical at Fox Theatre

The Tony Award-winning Broadway musical "The Outsiders" is on stage this weekend at Fox Theatre in Atlanta and one of its stars attended school in Marietta. Paul Milliken interviews Christian Arrendondo and surprise guests.

ATLANTA - It’s been inspiring readers for nearly 60 years — and now, S. E. Hinton’s classic novel "The Outsiders" is reaching new audiences across the country thanks to its Tony-winning stage adaptation.

The Broadway National Tour of "The Outsiders" opened at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre last night as part of the current Broadway in Atlanta season, with performances set to continue through Nov. 30. The musical version opened on Broadway in 2024 and went on to score a dozen Tony Award nominations, winning four (including Best Musical). The stage musical is based on both Hinton’s 1967 coming-of-age novel and the subsequent film version directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Among the cast of the National Tour is Christian Arredondo, who serves as understudy for the roles of Ponyboy and Johnny. Performing at the Fox is something of a homecoming for Arredondo, who grew up in Marietta and graduated from Walton High School. Following high school, the actor attended Pace University, and "The Outsiders" marks Arredondo’s National Tour debut.

Arredondo says his time at Walton High School — and specifically working with drama program co-directors Susan Griffin and Joymichelle Green — directly led him to a career as a professional performer.

"I owe being here to Mrs. Griffin and Mrs. Green at Walton High School, who were English teachers by day and took the time to run our drama department and sort of just cultivated in me the idea that I could do this professionally," he says.

Good Day Atlanta and our friends at Broadway in Atlanta coordinated a surprise reunion between Arredondo and his high school teachers via Zoom ahead of the Atlanta tour stop — to check out the emotional moments, click the video player in this article.

Remaining showtimes at the Fox Theatre are 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 8 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturday, and 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Sunday. For ticket information, click here. And click the video player in this article to watch our interview with Christian Arredondo.