Tulsans are awesome, Page Six has learned!
Some of us had never met anyone from T-Town until Wednesday night, but it turns out those guys are a delight.
“The Outsiders” — a musical based on the famed novel set in the Oklahoma town — opens on Broadway on April 11. And 100 or so Tulsans are so darn proud that they traveled up in a group for the occasion as if the 1967 book were a high-school football team that made it to Nationals.
The gang was mostly bunked up at the Hilton in Times Square where they held a party Wednesday evening, at which they served hot dogs cut into bite-size pieces and talked about Tulsa.
“There’s just a lot of pride that this story isn’t just special in Tulsa and it seems to resonate with people all over America,” the mayor of Tulsa, G.T. Bynum told Page Six. “And so having it come to Broadway is very exciting.”
Bynum, who brought his charming teenage daughter along for the trip, added, “I know I should probably be telling you that we’re hoping this is going to drive tourism or something like that, but honestly we’re just really proud of it.”
When Page Six asked if our own Mayor Eric Adams would find many after-hours private-members clubs to hit up should he find himself in Tulsa, Bynum — who is wrapping up his second and final term — looked somewhat puzzled by the concept.
But he helpfully offered that there are an increasing number of entertainment options in the city.
“Building out our restaurant scene has been a big focal point, and then our concert arena, the BOK Center, has been the national Arena of the Year two of the last five years,” he said, adding the new Bob Dylan Center, the Woody Guthrie Center and, of course, the “Outsiders” House Museum to the list of attractions.
Meanwhile, the president of the Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce, Mike Neal — hot off luring two international businesses to the Tulsa area, an Italian solar cell manufacturer and an Italian paper manufacturer — has been quite impressed with one of the show’s producers, Angelina Jolie.
“She and her daughter [Vivienne] came to Tulsa with [the cast and crew] and spent a long weekend,” said Neal, “We showed them everything that was in the [1983 “Outsiders”] movie; the high school that [“Outsiders” author] Suzy Hinton went to.”
“They have a drama program at that school now,” Neal added. “Angelina told me, ‘If we lived in Tulsa, my daughter would go to that school [because of the drama program].’ She loved it.”
“The cast fell in love with Tulsa, and we fell in love with them,” said Neal. “Very impressive young people. Very impressive. They’ve got that heart, that spirit, that fire in the belly. They were just great. We’re so proud. We’re so proud to come here with this delegation from Tulsa to support them as they open on Broadway.”
Bill Knight, the owner of the biggest Ford dealership in Oklahoma for 15 years running and chairman-elect for the Tulsa Region Chamber of Commerce, told us why he’d made the trip.
“Anything we can do to promote Tulsa and promote what’s happening there, we’d like to do that: This show, the Bob Dylan Center, the Woody Guthrie museum,” he said, “I think there’s just a lot of really cool cultural things that people don’t really think about when they think about Tulsa.”
The “Outsiders” is at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater.
