Originally appeared on Chestnuthilllocal.com on May 28, 2026 | By Len Lear

When Emma Hearn was acting and singing in plays at Norwood-Fontbonne Academy in Chestnut Hill and then Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, she dreamed of performing on Broadway and other professional stages, like millions of other young hopefuls, even though the skyscraper-high odds are against them.

However, Emma has beaten the odds and has performed both on- and off-Broadway and all around the country. In fact, she has the leading female role of Cherry Valance in “The Outsiders,” the four Tony Award-winning Best Musical of 2024 on stage May 26 to June 7 at the Academy of Music. The musical is based on the best-selling 1967 novel by S.E. Hinton and on Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 motion picture.

The basic narrative is a coming-of-age “West Side Story-ish” tale except that while the teenage gangs in “Story” are white and Puerto Rican, the gangs in “The Outsiders” are low-income and much higher-income white youths. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Ponyboy Curtis, his best friend Johnny Cade and their “Greaser” band of “outsiders” battle with their affluent rivals, the Socs.

“I always wanted to be in theater,” Hearn told the Local last week. “My mom had a drama program at Norwood. She wrote and directed musicals. I’m still connected to Norwood. One hundred people with Norwood connections, including several teachers, will be coming to ‘The Outsiders.’ They have always shown support. After Germantown Academy, I did not want to go to New York and be distracted. I wanted to go far away, so I went to Texas State University, which has one of the top college music programs in the country.”

After graduating in 2018, Hearn began auditioning and finding success, performing in numerous regional productions such as “The Little Mermaid,” “Footloose,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Ragtime,” “A Chorus Line” “Legally Blonde” and more. After being in “Cats” on tour, she was selected to be in “Diana the Musical,” about the life and tragic death of Princess Diana, which was scheduled to be on Broadway.

“We did have nine previews on Broadway,” Hearn recalled, “but then the pandemic came in March of 2020, and that was the end of it. In the fall of 2021, ‘Diana the Musical’ did come back to Broadway, but I was not in the cast. It only ran there for one month.

“But then I was contacted by Germantown Academy. They told me that the drama teacher was going on sabbatical. So I went back and taught theater at GA for three years. That was a godsend. I loved my time there. We did student matinees, master classes and more.”

“The Outsiders” productions at the Academy of Music are part of a one-year nationwide tour that began with previews last September in Buffalo, followed by the official start of the tour in Tulsa, where the novel takes place. After Philly, “The Outsiders” will move to Grand Rapids, Michigan, then Toronto, Chicago, other Midwest locations and Denver in September.

According to a news release, ‘”The Outsiders’ navigates the complexities of self-discovery as the Greasers dream about who they want to become in a world that may never accept them. With a dynamic original score, ‘The Outsiders’ is a story of friendship, family, belonging … and the realization that there is still ‘lots of good in the world.’ The New York Times called it ‘refreshing, gritty and endlessly effective.’”

Hearn, who grew up in Ambler and Lower Gwynedd and now lives in Upper Dublin when she is not on tour, said, ‘“The Outsiders’ has been wonderful so far. To be able to tell a great story is so satisfying. We have students bringing their parents and grandparents. It is a cosmic classic story elevated by great music. And we were so fortunate to meet Susie Hinton [author of the novel], who gave us her blessing and was very nice. I never read the book as a kid and never saw the movie version, but I am so glad to be a part of it.”

When her one-year contract with “The Outsiders” is up, Hearn will go back to auditioning. “It’s impossible to know what I’ll be doing after that,” she said. “It’s too early to know, but I am open to any opportunity, no matter what — TV, movies, commercials. I love building characters from the ground up. I am so blessed and surprised.”

Hearn has a sister, Sophie, who was a theater major at Rutgers University and is also a professional performer. She was in an off-Broadway production at age 13 and was in “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” on Broadway, among others.

“My family has been so great,” Hearn said. “I am humbled. My dad and mom could not have been more supportive. Sophie and I both made our Broadway debuts at the same time. I look forward to being together with her in the same production one day.”