Three OU alums win Tony Award for role in Broadway show | Entertainment

Three University of Oklahoma alumni are now Tony Award winners for their roles in one of Broadway’s newest productions.

“The Outsiders” is based on the novel of the same name by S.E. Hilton and follows a group of “outsiders” in Tulsa as they fight to survive and look for a purpose in the world. The book was adapted into a film in 1983 featuring Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, and Patrick Swayze.

Now, it’s been reimagined for the Broadway stage, which opened April 11 and received 12 nominations at the 77th Annual Tony Awards on June 16. The show finished the evening with four wins, including the Tony Award for Best Musical.

Dan Berry and Daryl Tofa, who play Paul Holden and Two-Bit Mathews, respectively, and John Tupy, who works in business operations for the show, can call themselves Tony Award winners.

“The Tony win is thrilling,” Berry said. “I knew we were great. I just hoped the Tony voters would feel the same. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and the night was filled with joy and celebration for this show we have held so near and dear to us this whole time. Feels amazing to win best musical with the best people in the world around me.”

Berry said he loves the usage and absence of music throughout the show, crediting the creative team for removing music from the background during fight scenes to “make these acts ring louder and sting the audience more.”

The production also won Best Sound Design of a Musical at this year’s awards.

Tofa, who plays Two-Bit Mathews, said this is a story anyone can relate to. No matter who you are or where you come from, audience members can relate to something or someone.

He also said he’s able to connect with his character personally.

“He’s half Filipino, half Samoan. Lives with Mom and little sister, but isn’t really home. He finds his family in the Greasers and does anything to help out the family,” said Tofa. “It means the world to play him because he is me. I connect to him right now in my life. Just looking to have good company around and making core memories with my chosen family. It also means a lot to represent my culture and people who look like me in this show.”

The show also has a more personal element for John Tupy, who grew up in Jenks before attending OU.

“I never could have imagined that I would be a part of bringing this Oklahoma story to New York,” said Tupy.

Tupy said he loves how well the production represents the story of “The Outsiders” and is thrilling to watch the story come to life on stage.

All three credit OU and the musical theater performance program for helping get them to where they are now. Berry earned his bachelor’s degree in 2023 and Tupy earned his degree in 2019. Tofa left his senior spring when he received an offer to join a Broadway production.

Tofa didn’t intend on doing musical theater until he got to OU. He’s thankful for his time in the program and said it helped craft a foundation of skills for him to learn and grow from and to make mistakes throughout the year. Tofa then took this foundation and applied it to his regional theater summer jobs as he worked his way to Broadway.

For Tupy, the four years he spent on campus were formative to the career he has today, adding that the program is kept small intentionally to give students specialized training and attention.

“In college and beyond, my OUMT classmates have been and continue to be some of my closest friends, and it is so exciting to continue watching these Sooners — like Dan and Daryl — finding incredible success on Broadway and beyond.”

Ashton Byrum, the director of Weitzenhoffer School of Musical Theatre, interacted with or taught Tupy, Berry and Tofa. Byrum said he had Tupy in a capstone class and would have had Tofa, but he auditioned for the Broadway company of “Mean Girls” and found out he wouldn’t be able to return to the program.

“Of course you can’t always time your Broadway debut,” Byrum said. “So sometimes it happens when it’s supposed to happen. And sometimes it’s a little early and sometimes it takes 10 years, but this is (Tofa’s) third Broadway show.”

Byrum had more experience teaching and directing Berry, who was part of the first class Byrum recruited himself.

“Dan, I’m so proud of Dan,” Bryum said.

Last May, Byrum said he was able to get a big agent in town to see one of the regional premieres of a new musical about Elvis, featuring Dan Berry as “The King of Rock and Roll.”

“Two months later, he booked “Outsiders” and so like it was sort of the ideal success story,” Byrum said.

Tupy worked on a national tour of “Chicago” before returning to graduate school and discovering he was interested in producing and management, which led him to the team at “The Outsiders.”

Byrum said Tupy was a great dancer and a hilarious actor during his time at OU, but his mind set him apart, too.

“He was a leader in this program,” he said.

Byrum was able to make a trip to New York to see a show and said the fanfare for it was madness.

“You can imagine it’s a show full of, like, 15 guys, all in their early 20s, all having their sad feelings and fighting each other in their wet t-shirts and the teenage girls are losing their mind,” Byrum said.

In particular, Byrum highlighted the fights and how the creative team chose to choreograph, light and sound design the scenes.

“There’s this really incredible combat scene towards the end. It’s the rumble where the Socs and the Greasers finally just have it out for each other,” he said. “The revenge they want to have with each other is expressed through this beautifully choreographed combat scene.”

Byrum described little back rubber pieces, similar to turf found on a football field, covering the stage. He said it gives the scenes a “gravelly, dirty” quality, and while it also makes it safer for them to spin, dance and slide around the floor, it also means dirt, gravel and dust are flying everywhere.

“Feels like Oklahoma, right?” Byrum said.

Bryum said it’s his, and other professors’, job to help students like Tupy, Tofa and Berry see their pathway to success, wish them luck and continue to support them after graduation.

“You cannot imagine how proud I was sitting there watching them in that show,” he said.