100 gallons of water and fake blood: Behind the scenes of that epic rumble in 'The Outsiders'

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Set us as preferred They say it’s always sunny in Los Angeles, but inside the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, you can count on it to pour eight shows a week.That’s thanks to a climactic moment in “The Outsiders” musical in which real water falls from the rafters as teen gangs brawl in a fight filled with rain, mud and stage blood.Staging that key three minutes of the show’s meticulously choreographed, highly anticipated climax, is a technical feat involving more than 100 gallons of water and unwavering physical acumen on the part of the cast.“We are really careful with each other in a really great way,” says Rick Kuperman who choreographed the show with his brother Jeff Kuperman, adding that the rumble is “not more or less dangerous than any of the things that happen on a Broadway stage.

It’s choreographed within an inch of its life — it has to be with that many bodies and that much traffic and activity.”While “The Outsiders,” may feature two warring teen gangs, it’s all love an hour before the curtain rises on the L.A.-premiere stop of the national tour.The actors will soon slip into their 1967 costumes as the impoverished Greasers and the privileged Socs — and spend the next two hours hating each other onstage.

But at the “lift call” they do every night, there’s nothing but harmony.The cast looks out of place in ordinary clothes, and it’s odd to see the two gangs laughing with one another as they run through the precise fight choreography that has become a hallmark of the Tony Award-winning show.

Dance captain Hannah Jennens, who is also a swing in the show, talks through the staging while asking the performers to be “at 65” — a way of saying they should not run at full speed and energy.“It allows the actors to feel things out in order to perfect the timing and preserve energy for...