Every year, different Broadway musicals get to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade before the actual parade arrives in front of the Macy’s on 34th Street’s Herald Square. This year, three shows got selected: Hell’s Kitchen, Death Becomes Her, and my favorite musical: The Outsiders. Once the announcement was made that the cast of The Outsiders would be performing, I immediately sent it to my family members, making sure they knew what we would be watching Thanksgiving morning.
The performance began with the opening number in the show, “Tulsa ‘67,” where Brody Grant, who plays Ponyboy Curtis, was sitting with the audience. People on TikTok even spotted recent Bachelor and winner of Dancing with the Stars, Joey Graziadei, sitting behind Grant during the performance, which felt like my worlds colliding. The cast usually performs “Tulsa ‘67” when they do television performances, so I was pleasantly surprised when they mashed it up with the “Friday at the Drive-In” dance break, and the end of “Finale (Tulsa ‘67).” I love the dance break in “Friday at the Drive-In” because of how fun it is, and you get to see the Greasers and Socs characters really shine through. The choreography in this number is also incredible ,and I’m glad that people who haven’t gotten the chance to see the show still got to see this number. The cast closed their parade performance with the ending of “Finale (Tulsa ‘67).” In the Broadway show, they use different elements on the set, such as the church, but since they obviously couldn’t bring the church to Herald Square, they added choreography to it. I enjoyed seeing some cast members dance that don’t usually dance during this song.
If you watched the broadcast, or even if you just left your house that day, you know that it was raining during the parade, and it wasn’t necessarily light rain either. While the cast is used to performing in the rain, as they have stage rain during the rumble, I can only assume that dancing on concrete in real rain is much more difficult. The rain wasn’t so kind to some of them, and caused them to slip during the performance (I’m sorry Dan Berry and Daryl Tofa). I was still incredibly impressed that they were able to sing and dance in the rain. If I fell in front of millions of viewers on television, you would never hear from me again, but they took it like champs.
Two of the cast members also did Instagram story takeovers on the morning of the parade. Jason Schmidt, who plays Sodapop Curtis, did one on the Playbill Instagram, while Melody Rose, who plays Beverly, did one on the iHeartRadio Broadway Instagram. They shared some behind-the-scenes footage, like the run-throughs before the performance, getting their hair done, and videos and pictures with the other cast members, and they even answered some questions. Schmidt and Rose’s Instagram takeovers weren’t the only behind-the-scenes footage fans got from the parade; The Outsiders Instagram account also shared some photos of the cast during the performance and a behind-the-scenes look at it as well. As a fan, I loved seeing all of this extra content, and it made Thanksgiving morning even more exciting for me.
I’ve watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade every year for as long as I can remember, and love watching the different Broadway shows perform each year, so getting to watch my favorite show perform this year was extra special for me. I got to watch it with my family who hasn’t seen the show yet, and they got to see why I love it so much. One of the things I’m grateful for this year is all the memories that going to see The Outsiders on Broadway has brought me, so it was very fitting to start my holiday off by watching them in the parade.
If you missed their performance during the parade, you can watch it here.