When the Broadway audience meets teenage Johnny Cade, he\u2019s looking rough.<\/p>\n
\u201cJohnny Cade enters nervously smoking a cigarette,\u201d read the stage directions for \u201cThe Outsiders,\u201d a musical based on the 1983 film, which cast Ralph Macchio in the role. \u201cHe is 16, looks young for his age. His face is freshly broken and bruised.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnny has been Wisconsin-born actor Caleb Mathura\u2019s \u201cdream role\u201d since before the show won a Tony Award for Best Musical in 2024. On March 17, Mathura will step into Johnny\u2019s scuffed sneakers and make his Broadway debut.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Caleb Mathura, a Verona High School graduate, will play Johnny Cade in “The Outsiders” on Broadway starting March 17.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Mathura, who graduated from Verona High School in 2018, spent the past few years touring with the national companies of \u201cMean Girls\u201d and \u201cThe Notebook.\u201d He first auditioned for \u201cThe Outsiders\u201d two years ago.<\/p>\n First, Mathura went for an open call (meant for all performers who meet the criteria for a role) and got cut early. Then he went to a work session last December, but didn\u2019t hear back.<\/p>\n \u201cWith \u2018The Outsiders,\u2019 they don\u2019t cast with one person in mind,\u201d Mathura said. \u201cThey cast with the intention of creating an ensemble. \u2026 As an actor, when you hear \u2018no,\u2019 you take it personally, but it\u2019s never personal. It\u2019s logistical. It\u2019s not a reflection on you, or the work you bring to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n This winter, he got the call: Mathura was the new Johnny Cade. Within six days, he\u2019d started rehearsal in New York City, where he\u2019s excited to finally sign a lease.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had like two suitcases with me since I graduated college,\u201d Mathura said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be cool to settle down and have an apartment that\u2019s mine.\u201d<\/p>\n Based on a 1967\u00a0novel by S.E. Hinton, \u201cThe Outsiders\u201d has a folk rock-inflected score and is set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the Socs (short for \u201csocialites,\u201d pronounced \u201csoh-shes\u201d) and the Greasers are at war. Mathura plays the best friend of the main character, Ponyboy Curtis, and says the show\u2019s most memorable tagline: \u201cStay gold.\u201d<\/p>\n Mathura spoke with the Cap Times about what\u2019s different between a national tour and Broadway, what it means to play a younger character, and how to rehearse onstage fighting.<\/p>\n This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Caleb Mathura, left, takes a curtain call in the first national tour of “Mean Girls.”\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n A performer I interviewed once said that Broadway is just like theater anywhere else, but on a bigger stage. Do you find that to be true?<\/strong><\/p>\n I actually kind of feel the opposite. Going on tour, we\u2019re playing these houses that are between like 2,000 and 4,500 seats. The last seven months, I\u2019ve been with \u201cThe Notebook\u201d playing these gorgeous, humungous houses.<\/p>\n And then I got to the Jacobs Theatre (on Broadway) and I was like, \u201cOh, my gosh, it\u2019s tiny.\u201d (At 1,078 seats), it\u2019s about half the size of the smallest house we played on \u201cNotebook.\u201d It\u2019s so intimate \u2026 you can see the eyes of the actors, you can see the tears, you can see the sweat. Even from the last row, you have a great seat in the house. I think that takes some of the pressure away.<\/p>\n One of our co-directors for \u201cNotebook,\u201d Schele Williams, told us that when we\u2019re onstage it\u2019s for us, and the audience is spying on us. At the Jacobs, that feels like the case.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Caleb Mathura, center, played Pippin in “Pippin” at Point Park University.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe Outsiders\u201d has a rumble in the ra<\/strong>in. How do you rehe<\/strong>arse for that? You can\u2019t have rain in a rehearsal room.<\/strong><\/p>\n We actually won\u2019t get rain until our first show. That\u2019s going to be a whole other element. But with fighting, we have an incredible fight team \u2026 they have every track memorized to a T. We\u2019re in pairs, and they go person to person and talk them through what they\u2019re going to be doing. They teach it very slowly to counts.<\/p>\n If you have zero to 100% (intensity) \u2014 and 100% is full-out, no marking \u2014 we never do it past 65-80%. They never want us to go full-out for safety, even when the audience is there.<\/p>\n With these very intense scenes, a lot of times your emotion can take over, and you might not have the control that you need to do this safely. They stress that to us, and it\u2019s a lot of repetition and just mathematical physicality.<\/p>\n What\u2019s interesting about this fight is it\u2019s not done to music, it\u2019s done to (the sound of) a train chugging closer and closer. It\u2019s very percussive. Phase one is the grunting and breathing of the group; phase two is thunder and rain and you start to hear the train; and phase three is when you hear the train pounding, and thunder and rain and fighting, and everything is happening all at once.<\/p>\n How do you play a character several years younger than you are?<\/strong><\/p>\n Physicality helps a lot. With Johnny, I think of a rag doll, just because he\u2019s tossed around so much. And his posture \u2014 he\u2019s not standing too tall, not necessarily because of the age but because of his demeanor and how he\u2019s perceived.<\/p>\n In \u201cThe Notebook\u201d I understudied young Noah and I played Fin (a teenager). When I\u2019m clean-shaven I can pass for young, which is nice.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Caleb Mathura, right, played the title character in “Pippin” at Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n COURTESY OF CALEB MATHURA<\/span>
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