Outsiders
CLIENT
Situation Interactive
TECHNOLOGIES
WordPress, PHP, JavaScript, Telecharge API
YEAR
2024
EXTERNAL URL
The 2024 Tony Award winner for Best Musical — and the fourth consecutive Best Musical winner in my portfolio, following Dear Evan Hansen, The Band’s Visit, and Kimberly Akimbo. WordPress build with Telecharge ticketing integration, a multi-platform stream selector for the cast recording, and education resources for the show’s school matinee program.
Ran the full build at Situation Interactive.
Background
A new musical adapted from an American classic needed a digital platform built for a Broadway premiere.
The Outsiders — a new musical based on S.E. Hinton’s 1967 novel and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film — was transferring to Broadway after a world premiere run at La Jolla Playhouse. The production featured a book by Adam Rapp with Justin Levine, music and lyrics by Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance) alongside Levine, and direction by Danya Taymor. With Coppola himself as a producer, twelve Tony nominations ahead of it, and a built-in audience spanning generations of readers and filmgoers, the show was one of the most anticipated new musicals of the 2023-24 season. Previews were set to begin March 16, 2024 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, with an official opening on April 11. By this point my Broadway ticketing and tour infrastructure was thoroughly battle-tested across years of productions — the challenge here was less about inventing patterns and more about building the right content architecture for a show with unusually deep source material and an education program targeting schools nationwide.
Unlike most new musicals, The Outsiders arrived with a massive existing audience — the platform needed to convert decades of cultural recognition into ticket purchases.
Implementation
A media-dense Broadway build with integrated ticketing, streaming, and education content.
The Telecharge ticketing integration followed the mature pattern I had refined across many previous Broadway builds — performance calendar, availability states, premium seating, group sales through Broadway Inbound, GOVX military discounts — so the infrastructure stood up quickly and reliably. What made this build distinctive was the content layer beyond ticketing. The Look & Listen section delivered a stream selector that let visitors listen to the original cast recording — released on Masterworks Broadway/Sony Masterworks — across Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music without leaving the site. More unusually, the build included a full education toolkit with downloadable study guides and “Know Before You Go” materials, turning the site into an active resource for schools and group organizers bringing students to the theatre. That education component gave the site a depth most Broadway builds do not require.
The education toolkit was unique in my Broadway portfolio — most shows market to theatergoers, but The Outsiders also had to serve teachers, students, and school group coordinators.
Results
Four Tony Awards, a full recoupment, and a national tour — all running through the same platform.
The Outsiders won four Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Direction for Danya Taymor — making it the fourth consecutive year I built the digital home for Broadway’s top prize, following Kimberly Akimbo in 2023. The platform handled the sustained demand that followed the wins: the production recouped its full investment by December 2025, and a North American tour launched in September 2025, opening at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center — the show’s hometown and the setting of the story itself. The site expanded to support tour content and routing alongside the ongoing Broadway run, with the marketing team managing both properties through the same CMS. A year later, Maybe Happy Ending would win Best Musical for 2025, extending the streak to five.
Five Best Musical Tony winners across my portfolio is not a stat I could have predicted when Dear Evan Hansen launched — but each one built on the infrastructure and instincts of the last.
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