Jason Schmidt On 'Outsiders' Broadway Role & Songwriting
To celebrate the release of his new single '7 Stars," I stopped by the Jacobs Theatre to catch up with Jason about portraying Sodapop Curtis in Broadway's The Outsiders, and his journey into songwriting.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
BuzzFeed: I grew up reading The Outsiders, and it's connected with so many people all over the world. What is your own connection to the book?
Jason: Growing up, my dad would read to me and my three sisters — he read us The Outsiders, the Percy Jackson books, The Hunger Games, all those. I can still remember images in my head as he read to us, where I pictured the Socs as kind of large and spooky! At the beginning of our show, when the Socs first jump Ponyboy, that scene feels a lot like how I envisioned them as a kid. The Outsiders was also my mom's favorite movie for a long time. She loved Matt Dillon [who played Dally in the film], and so I watched the movie when I was younger as well.
How about your connection specifically to Sodapop?
In the show, he's the middleman between Darry [Darrel] and Pony, and I think that's who I am a lot of the time. I'm the people pleaser, I'm making sure everyone is laughing and having a good time, and so I really resonate with that plot line and his arc. When Soda snaps at the end, it comes from having fought the whole show to keep Darrel and Ponyboy in good graces with each other, and it's not working. As soon as I read for Soda, he was a character that I felt was right down the middle for me.
Honestly, he's taught me a lot about the looseness of life. In another S.E. Hinton novel, Tex, she says, "Some people go, some people stay," and he's definitely someone who stays. He loves Tulsa, and he loves his life there. Soda doesn't ask for much. If more comes, that's great. If it doesn't, he goes with the flow. I'm not like that — I'm someone who holds onto life pretty tightly. So that's where he differs from me, and I think I'm learning to let go a bit more and go with the flow.
You have a great sense of comedic timing, and Soda has his share of humorous moments in the show. Are any of these moments improvised?
Thank you! They're very scripted. Adam Rapp wrote them amazingly. In the early days of the process, there'd be a little improvising here and there, but with planning around a national tour and all that, they want it to be a repeatable show. We've locked into the script as it is for the most part.
I'm always playing around with how a line lands and the timing of it. It's funny — at this point, I probably have four or five versions of every line that I know work well. Some nights, I'll try a different version. But if I'm tired or something, I'm gonna go with the tried and true delivery (laughs). For the most part, I try to listen and be responsive to the other actors in the scene.
I think that humor is such an important part of the show because it's so dark. A lot of sad stuff happens, and there's not a lot of comedy. It's nice to get the audience to laugh a little bit, like before "Runs in the Family (Reprise)" where Pony and Darrel get in a fight. I love playing a role that brings the humor and lightens it up for a moment.
While Soda adds humor to the show, he also has a really emotional scene at the end of Act 2. Is it difficult to get into that more emotional headspace?
Not really, to be honest. Beneath the comedy, Soda is using it as a defense mechanism, and he's using it to cut through the emotional moments that his brothers are dealing with. So while he's very comedic, there's always an undertone of reality. Soda is not the most book-smart, but he is very emotionally intelligent; he really understands other people, where they're at, and what they need. That keeps me kind of locked into the reality of the show, which makes it pretty easy to slip in. I also think the writing is incredible, so it just leads me right along.
The music of The Outsiders has many fan-favorite songs, especially "Throwing in the Towel." What is your favorite part of performing it?
I love performing that song with whoever is on for Darrel that night, usually Brent Comer most of the time. I love doing it with Dan Berry, Victor Carrillo Tracey, and John Patrick Collins as well. It's such a beautiful connection of brothers.
I remember growing up, there was a mentor of mine who I really wanted to do a duet with. And we were like, which song should we do? It was pretty evident there's not a lot of male and male duets to sing together, so I love being in a show that provides so many.
It's such a special moment between the brothers. Hearing how men have been impacted by the show is super important to me. We've watched brothers kind of lean their heads on each other's shoulders, and put their arms around each other as they watch the show. I think that's the most special part of "Throwing in the Towel."
When you're in between scenes, what is the vibe like backstage?
We're having so much fun! Whoever's on for Darrel, we're backstage together the whole time, messing around. We're just chatting it up in between scenes, and we've got fun things backstage like our whiteboard. There's always something on the board like 'This or That,' where everyone marks their tallies. That's always fun. I have a great time in my dressing room with Daryl Tofa [who plays Two-Bit]. We write all sorts of little ditties.
The rumble is one of the most unique moments I've ever seen on a Broadway stage. Can you tell me about what goes through your mind when you perform that scene?
At this point, it's pretty much muscle memory, though they've added more rain than we used to have. I'm really focused on the actions and making sure everyone's safe. A lot of nights, we're joking around on stage, and whispering in each other's ears, things like that, especially when we hold in a position. Davis Wayne is my main partner in the scene, and we have fun whispering stuff to each other.
It's this huge, violent scene, but everyone's just giggling, and saying jokes, and being nice to each other. Early on in previews, the band told us that they could hear all of our mics in the pit, and loved hearing how funny everybody was. It's such a cool scene and we know the impact it has, but when you're in it, it's about safety and having fun, and lightening the tension on stage.
I remember watching you all perform the rumble at the 2024 Tony Awards!
Oh yeah, I blacked out, for sure. I mean, the adrenaline's crazy. There's a thing you talk about, red light fever, where you need to be more careful when the adrenaline is up, because your body would do more than you normally do. We all talked about that before the performance, but it was so fun. It was like the best 10 minutes of my life.
Theo Wargo / Via Getty Images
I definitely want to chat about your original music. What inspired you to get into songwriting?
I had two close friends in college who really inspired me to delve into it more. It's something I was always very interested in. I started writing in high school, but none of that stuff was good (laughs). My friend Andy was releasing his first album freshman year of college. I asked him questions about producing the music and releasing it, and he really inspired me to keep writing. Once I got going, it just snowballed, and I was writing all the time.
What I love about songwriting is it's a form of self-exploration and self-expression. The exploration part of it is super rewarding for me, and it's very journalistic, so I can find a lot of things about myself through doing it. Sometimes I'll write a song and not really know what it means, and then months later, I'll finally understand!
Jason Schmidt / Via The Outsiders
I love your new single, "7 Stars." What was it like writing that song?
Thank you so much! It was very special, partially because it was my first session with the producer, Simon Gooding, and it was the first thing we ever wrote together. Now we've been writing a lot more music together, but this was the session that was like, "Oh yeah, this dynamic definitely works."
A lot of the songs I write are super personal to my life. "7 Stars" definitely has a taste of that, but it was kind of a story I invented in my head, and let my imagination run wild. Where I grew up in Arlington Heights, a lot of people will go to the same three or four colleges, and then they'll come back and get a job there. I definitely was somebody who left. I love the suburbs of Chicago. I'd love to be back there at some point, someday, but I knew that for my life, I needed to move out and to leave.
Writing about people who got stuck there, but knew they were born to leave, was a super fun experience for me. I know tons of people like that; I feel like that in my life. I think I'm an explorer. I don't love staying in one place for too long. That kind of "born-to-leave energy" will pop up at certain places. Like, it's time to move on and continue with this crazy journey.
What's up next for your music?
I'm really excited! When I started releasing music, I was pretty young. Now, there's more planning and preparation that goes into it. I think when you listen to my first EPs, the styles are pretty varied, and I didn't exactly know what I wanted a 'Jason Schmidt' song to be. I've been writing for a long time, and I feel like we've really narrowed what I want my music to sound like and the story I want to tell. I'm very excited for people to hear that final sound. "7 Stars" is a taste of it, and I think the next stuff I'm doing really hits the pocket. So I'm very excited about that!
Finally, you recently headlined a show at Elsewhere in Brooklyn. What is the biggest difference between performing on a Broadway stage versus a concert stage?
Broadway is arguably easier, in some ways. It's scripted. For the most part, I know exactly what I'm going to do. You can practice it, and you can really rehearse it.
With music, I never plan out what I'm gonna say about the songs, or where I'm gonna take breaks. When I see a concert, I think it's less fun when I can tell they've planned everything out. You're there to see the person, and I don't care if they flub or stumble over their words. I want to hear the artists' raw and unfiltered thoughts. I try to do that for myself, where I'm interacting with the crowd, and I'm essentially improvising.
When I get off stage from my own shows, I feel like I poured all my energy into this last hour and a half. I think that's my goal with my music shows; I want to feel like I get off stage and have nothing left.
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