QUESTIONS From Hollywood to Broadway: The unlikely friendship between Danya Taymor and Angelina Jolie (video)

When Angelina Jolie announced nearly a year ago that she’d signed on as a producer of the Broadway-bound musical The Outsiders.

Folks in the theater community could be forgiven for assuming she was merely the latest in a long.

And ever-growing line of celebrities willing to either raise money or share fame in exchange for a credit in Playbill.

Those folks would have been wrong.

“Angelina was in the room a lot,” says Outsiders director Danya Taymor, explaining that the Oscar-winning actress (for Girl, Interrupted) offered creative notes.

Suggestions and even guidance and advice for the show’s young cast, many of whom were making their Broadway debuts.

“I’ve had successes and failures,” Jolie tells Deadline, “and I’ve been around a long time…”

Brody Grant, who has earned a Tony Award nomination for his Broadway debut as Ponyboy Curtis, told Deadline, “Danya and Angelina are two artists who are at the top of their game. It’s an honor to get to work under the guidance of these incredible women.”

So how did Jolie and Taymor come to forge such an effective team? Turns out, they owe their thanks to Jolie’s 15-year-old daughter Vivienne. (How so? Again, read on.)

Based, of course, on the 1967 S.E. Hinton novel and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film adaptation, The Outsiders, set in Tulsa in 1967, tells the story of 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis, his two brothers and best friend Johnny – the Greasers – as they struggle to get by and stand tall against the affluent rival group the Socs.

Taymor’s staging – which premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego last year before its move to Broadway – has been one of the few unqualified hits to emerge from Broadway’s incredibly busy spring, garnering good reviews and excellent box office.

The production has been nominated for 12 Tony Awards:

Best Musical

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Brody Grant)

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Joshua Boone, Sky Lakota-Lynch)

Best Direction of a Musical (Danya Taymor)

Best Book of a Musical (Justin Levine and Adam Rapp)