Newsies: A Review
I had the great privilege of getting to see Newsies at Quad City Music Guild today.
Based on the 1992 live action Disney Musical, the Broadway musical stage version, now playing onstage at Prospect Park Auditorium in Moline, Illinois, is the story of teenage boys and girls selling newspapers in New York City circa 1899. They upped the price of the newspapers, and the newsboys and girls suddenly were watching the cost of meals and clothes into spending more for the same amount of papers from the publishers.
The movie should have been a hit. We didn't know any better in 1992. Beauty and the Beast had come out in November of 1991. Aladdin would come out in November of 1992. Each had Alan Menken scores, just like Newsies. We were at a point where we wanted our musicals with cartoon princesses and numerous singing anthropomorphic objects and animals. So we let the movie be a bomb. Also, it was unfair that Newsies had to be in the same Oscar race as Aladdin. Disney stopped putting ads in the paper for the movie after the first week of its release in April, and it dropped out of sight by May.
Then in 2012, a miracle happened! It made its Broadway debut, won Tonys, and toured. Now we have it in our community theaters. I've seen it professionally. The Moline production is as good as anything I've seen in the Chicago area or Peoria.
Jack Kelly is seventeen, he's raising himself, and hints at the fact his old man perished working for the man. He's an idealistic kid, but he's been made world-weary from selling newspapers on street corners and having just enough money to get by.
On the other hand, there's Davey, who has to leave school and sell newspapers with his ten year old kid brother, Les. Their dad has worked, but he tangled with a cart and is laid up. This is before the time of collective bargaining, work release, and workman's compensation.
Unions have given us the rights that we as a workforce haven't enjoyed for all that long. I'm going to my annual physical in three days. I'll have a reasonable co-pay. My employer, Rockridge High School, has offered me good medical insurance, so my monthly premiums and their pay-ins will take care of the rest. It's good to know that employers want us to be happy, healthy, and safe.
Jack Kelly just wanted the same thing in 1899. He learns that the trolley car operators went on strike. They want better wages. Jack figures out that if he can get his fellow newsboys to set down their papers and refuse to sell them, they can force the hand of Joseph Pulitzer, the publisher.
Joey Dryoel is Jack. He's got boundless stage energy, and his character is constantly torn between getting the strike organized and not getting his friends hurt. He's torn between staying in New York, where he has Krutchie, Specs, Race, and all his pals, and maybe a burgeoning love story with Katherine Plummer; and getting out to find work in the mountains of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pulitzer could fill his pockets with enough money to go to New Mexico and get himself a job out there, only it requires him to walk out on the people whose livelihoods are important to him. That would make him a scab.
Hillary Erb is Katherine Plummer, a journalist who is covering the strikes for the Sun, a competing newspaper with the World.
Jack first meets her on the streets of New York. He gets turned down flat when he tries out a pick up line. But the second time, when he runs into her at the Bowery during Medda Larkin's stage show... hang on, he gets turned down flat again. But the next time they run into each other, he's planning the newspaper strike.
Plummer has been stuck covering the social pages of the Sun. She realizes that if she gets the newspaper strike lead and can put it on the front of her paper, she's going places. Imagine if you were stuck writing articles about bake sales, pancake breakfasts and fish fries (hang on, wait a minute, that sounds like fun, though) for the 14th page of the C section of the newspaper. And then your boss came to your desk and said "guess what, I'm sending you to Kyiv to cover the War in Ukraine," (actually, that sounds kind of dangerous), "and you get to interview Volodymyr Zelenskyy....." well, if you were a serious investigative reporter, you may jump at the chance.
I think the point I'm trying to make is Katherine Plummer wants to rise to the occasion as a serious journalist, a woman in a man's world. And she'd very much like to get herself proven by getting the Sun to run an above the fold front page headline by her.
Hillary is just so much fun to watch in "Watch What Happens." Her diction has always been great, but ever since she started getting good roles in Children of Eden, The Little Mermaid, and A Chorus Line, I always look forward to the scene where her character has to move the narrative forward through very fast dialogue, monologue, or multiple verses of a song. "Watch What Happens" is Katherine negotiating her duty as a journalist with the fact she's slipping into love with Jack, the subject of her article. She's at war with herself, and it's beautiful. It's beautiful to watch.
I liked watching Cody Dutton as Davey, and he and Joey worked together in Wizard of Oz. As for Davey, he just wants to make money to take home to his family. On the other hand, if he has to spend more for papers, he gets less take home pay. And if he's got an injured father, shouldn't he care more than anyone about fair pay and maybe even some medical benefits?
Davey falls in line as Jack's major domo.
I don't have my program on hand, but the kid who plays Les gets some spectacular lines. The thing about having to bat away skirts is priceless. It lands as well back in Row M as it does in Row A.
Then there are the actors who played Specs, Race, and Krutchie, and all the other non-named roles. I don't know where I set my program, but all of these actors did very well.
As for Em Schwartz as Medda Larkin, hey, when you know an actor has a dream role, you talked about it with them before Christmastime of last year, and they get it, and they get a walk-off home run with the part, it's thrilling. Em Schwartz, you are my favorite Medda Larkin.
Nathan Bates was Joseph Pulitzer. and he was great fun to watch. He has built up his media empire, and now gets to watch the money roll in. But it's not enough money! He could be making more! By charging the vulnerable newspaper boys more money per hundred papers, he turns over a greater profit!
As for the newsboys, they're of course getting squeezed. Pulitzer thinks they need eto toughen up. He was in the Civil war when he was the age of the boys. Maybe being a veteran hardened him. It's interesting that his character is so grizzled, and yet he has such a beautiful voice. He got up to the A natural above middle C and held it as well as Jack Kelly did in his Santa Fe reprise!
And then there's Nathan's beautiful son, Gavin. I was with this duo in Wizard of Oz last year. I was sitting in my seat hoping that director Erin Platt had given Gavin a couple of lines. With a couple of lines, he can steal a scene. Erin did. And Gavin did. He and another actor play scabs at one point. They are newsboys who are ready to cross the picket line without going to the bargaining table. Jack, Davey, Les and company sing Seize the Day around this time. Or maybe it was The World Will Know. (I need to sit and watch this show a second time, and I will, this Saturday night). The first scab gets worn down and joins them. Gavin takes a little more convincing. When he gives in, he murmurs something along the lines of "ah, what the hell? My parents are going to kill me anyways."
Will somebody please get Nathan Bates boxed seats to a St. Louis Cardinals' game for having the presence of mind to bring Gavin to auditions? That. Moment. Was. Perfect.
And really, the thing that made Newsies such a success was how tuned in the performers and pit orchestra were. The performers all responded to each other. When the newsboys and girls started doing gymnastics and tumbling? Everyone else was watching and cheering. I could see Rori Myers smile from Row M! I could see Amber Whitaker's smile from Row M! I could see the tension between Marissa Pederson's office assistant and Nathan Bates' Pulitzer from Row M! They were all feeding off of each other's energy, letting each other have their moment. As such, everyone got their moment to shine!
Oh yeah, speaking the Myers family, did you know that Kirsten Myers is playing both Wiesel and Governor Theodore Roosevelt? His acting style changes with each part. The characters are so different, I kind of didn't believe my eyes. At the beginning, he is among the villains in the Disney movie who are trying to defraud the hero kids. (This is ironic, since in real life, Kirsten and his wife Missy have taken all of their children to Disney.)
Then as Roosevelt, he's kind of a hero for muscling Pulitzer to come back to the bargaining table.
As I don't know where I set my program, there are many other names I am neglecting to mention. The stage manager. The choreographer (Shana Kulhavy, that's right.) The stage manager. I could write a full issue of the New York World and still not have given everyone their due.
Newsies is about fair working environment, and the news! It is an absolute Gregonator. And you will love it too. I am still in a good mood from seeing it yesterday. It will go down as one of the high points of my theater summer as an audience member. Get your tickets, because they are selling faster than a special edition of a newspaper with a really bloody headline in 1899!
Based on the 1992 live action Disney Musical, the Broadway musical stage version, now playing onstage at Prospect Park Auditorium in Moline, Illinois, is the story of teenage boys and girls selling newspapers in New York City circa 1899. They upped the price of the newspapers, and the newsboys and girls suddenly were watching the cost of meals and clothes into spending more for the same amount of papers from the publishers.
The movie should have been a hit. We didn't know any better in 1992. Beauty and the Beast had come out in November of 1991. Aladdin would come out in November of 1992. Each had Alan Menken scores, just like Newsies. We were at a point where we wanted our musicals with cartoon princesses and numerous singing anthropomorphic objects and animals. So we let the movie be a bomb. Also, it was unfair that Newsies had to be in the same Oscar race as Aladdin. Disney stopped putting ads in the paper for the movie after the first week of its release in April, and it dropped out of sight by May.
Then in 2012, a miracle happened! It made its Broadway debut, won Tonys, and toured. Now we have it in our community theaters. I've seen it professionally. The Moline production is as good as anything I've seen in the Chicago area or Peoria.
Jack Kelly is seventeen, he's raising himself, and hints at the fact his old man perished working for the man. He's an idealistic kid, but he's been made world-weary from selling newspapers on street corners and having just enough money to get by.
On the other hand, there's Davey, who has to leave school and sell newspapers with his ten year old kid brother, Les. Their dad has worked, but he tangled with a cart and is laid up. This is before the time of collective bargaining, work release, and workman's compensation.
Unions have given us the rights that we as a workforce haven't enjoyed for all that long. I'm going to my annual physical in three days. I'll have a reasonable co-pay. My employer, Rockridge High School, has offered me good medical insurance, so my monthly premiums and their pay-ins will take care of the rest. It's good to know that employers want us to be happy, healthy, and safe.
Jack Kelly just wanted the same thing in 1899. He learns that the trolley car operators went on strike. They want better wages. Jack figures out that if he can get his fellow newsboys to set down their papers and refuse to sell them, they can force the hand of Joseph Pulitzer, the publisher.
Joey Dryoel is Jack. He's got boundless stage energy, and his character is constantly torn between getting the strike organized and not getting his friends hurt. He's torn between staying in New York, where he has Krutchie, Specs, Race, and all his pals, and maybe a burgeoning love story with Katherine Plummer; and getting out to find work in the mountains of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pulitzer could fill his pockets with enough money to go to New Mexico and get himself a job out there, only it requires him to walk out on the people whose livelihoods are important to him. That would make him a scab.
Hillary Erb is Katherine Plummer, a journalist who is covering the strikes for the Sun, a competing newspaper with the World.
Jack first meets her on the streets of New York. He gets turned down flat when he tries out a pick up line. But the second time, when he runs into her at the Bowery during Medda Larkin's stage show... hang on, he gets turned down flat again. But the next time they run into each other, he's planning the newspaper strike.
Plummer has been stuck covering the social pages of the Sun. She realizes that if she gets the newspaper strike lead and can put it on the front of her paper, she's going places. Imagine if you were stuck writing articles about bake sales, pancake breakfasts and fish fries (hang on, wait a minute, that sounds like fun, though) for the 14th page of the C section of the newspaper. And then your boss came to your desk and said "guess what, I'm sending you to Kyiv to cover the War in Ukraine," (actually, that sounds kind of dangerous), "and you get to interview Volodymyr Zelenskyy....." well, if you were a serious investigative reporter, you may jump at the chance.
I think the point I'm trying to make is Katherine Plummer wants to rise to the occasion as a serious journalist, a woman in a man's world. And she'd very much like to get herself proven by getting the Sun to run an above the fold front page headline by her.
Hillary is just so much fun to watch in "Watch What Happens." Her diction has always been great, but ever since she started getting good roles in Children of Eden, The Little Mermaid, and A Chorus Line, I always look forward to the scene where her character has to move the narrative forward through very fast dialogue, monologue, or multiple verses of a song. "Watch What Happens" is Katherine negotiating her duty as a journalist with the fact she's slipping into love with Jack, the subject of her article. She's at war with herself, and it's beautiful. It's beautiful to watch.
I liked watching Cody Dutton as Davey, and he and Joey worked together in Wizard of Oz. As for Davey, he just wants to make money to take home to his family. On the other hand, if he has to spend more for papers, he gets less take home pay. And if he's got an injured father, shouldn't he care more than anyone about fair pay and maybe even some medical benefits?
Davey falls in line as Jack's major domo.
I don't have my program on hand, but the kid who plays Les gets some spectacular lines. The thing about having to bat away skirts is priceless. It lands as well back in Row M as it does in Row A.
Then there are the actors who played Specs, Race, and Krutchie, and all the other non-named roles. I don't know where I set my program, but all of these actors did very well.
As for Em Schwartz as Medda Larkin, hey, when you know an actor has a dream role, you talked about it with them before Christmastime of last year, and they get it, and they get a walk-off home run with the part, it's thrilling. Em Schwartz, you are my favorite Medda Larkin.
Nathan Bates was Joseph Pulitzer. and he was great fun to watch. He has built up his media empire, and now gets to watch the money roll in. But it's not enough money! He could be making more! By charging the vulnerable newspaper boys more money per hundred papers, he turns over a greater profit!
As for the newsboys, they're of course getting squeezed. Pulitzer thinks they need eto toughen up. He was in the Civil war when he was the age of the boys. Maybe being a veteran hardened him. It's interesting that his character is so grizzled, and yet he has such a beautiful voice. He got up to the A natural above middle C and held it as well as Jack Kelly did in his Santa Fe reprise!
And then there's Nathan's beautiful son, Gavin. I was with this duo in Wizard of Oz last year. I was sitting in my seat hoping that director Erin Platt had given Gavin a couple of lines. With a couple of lines, he can steal a scene. Erin did. And Gavin did. He and another actor play scabs at one point. They are newsboys who are ready to cross the picket line without going to the bargaining table. Jack, Davey, Les and company sing Seize the Day around this time. Or maybe it was The World Will Know. (I need to sit and watch this show a second time, and I will, this Saturday night). The first scab gets worn down and joins them. Gavin takes a little more convincing. When he gives in, he murmurs something along the lines of "ah, what the hell? My parents are going to kill me anyways."
Will somebody please get Nathan Bates boxed seats to a St. Louis Cardinals' game for having the presence of mind to bring Gavin to auditions? That. Moment. Was. Perfect.
And really, the thing that made Newsies such a success was how tuned in the performers and pit orchestra were. The performers all responded to each other. When the newsboys and girls started doing gymnastics and tumbling? Everyone else was watching and cheering. I could see Rori Myers smile from Row M! I could see Amber Whitaker's smile from Row M! I could see the tension between Marissa Pederson's office assistant and Nathan Bates' Pulitzer from Row M! They were all feeding off of each other's energy, letting each other have their moment. As such, everyone got their moment to shine!
Oh yeah, speaking the Myers family, did you know that Kirsten Myers is playing both Wiesel and Governor Theodore Roosevelt? His acting style changes with each part. The characters are so different, I kind of didn't believe my eyes. At the beginning, he is among the villains in the Disney movie who are trying to defraud the hero kids. (This is ironic, since in real life, Kirsten and his wife Missy have taken all of their children to Disney.)
Then as Roosevelt, he's kind of a hero for muscling Pulitzer to come back to the bargaining table.
As I don't know where I set my program, there are many other names I am neglecting to mention. The stage manager. The choreographer (Shana Kulhavy, that's right.) The stage manager. I could write a full issue of the New York World and still not have given everyone their due.
Newsies is about fair working environment, and the news! It is an absolute Gregonator. And you will love it too. I am still in a good mood from seeing it yesterday. It will go down as one of the high points of my theater summer as an audience member. Get your tickets, because they are selling faster than a special edition of a newspaper with a really bloody headline in 1899!