Newsies is a word that can invoke different feelings and emotions in various age groups. Those of the older generation will think of the 1992 Disney movie starring a singing and dancing 17-year-old Christian Bale as the lead role of Jack Kelly. People who keep up with contemporary Broadway theatre will have fond memories of the Nederlander Theatre on West 41st Street in New York City, where Newsies was put on by Disney Theatrical Group for 8 shows a week. Some people don’t even know what a Newsie is! That unfortunate fact is about to change. This article will focus primarily on the musical because that is my own interest, but I absolutely encourage you to do some more research!
The story of Newsies is based on the real-life events of the Newsboys’ Strike of 1899, where all the paper boys in New York City went on strike because of publishing giants like Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raising the price that the boys had to pay to get their newspapers to sell for the day. The issue with the price hike was that a majority of these boys were either orphans or runaways, so they didn’t have much money to spare. They ended up reaching out to every child laborer in all five boroughs of the city, who all went on strike, causing the managers to have no employees. Hearst, Pulitzer, and all the other behemoths of business were faced with no other decision but to return the prices to normal.
This central plot line remains in both the movie and the musical. The primary difference is that in the movie, the reporter who details the newsboys and their strike is an adult male and the love interest is the lead character’s best friend’s sister, who is a completely flat character with absolutely no dimension to her. In the musical, the reporter and the love interest have been combined into one powerful female role. Both sides have their merits, but I’m partial to the musical.
Jack Kelly is the protagonist of the show and is the older boy that all the others look up to. This makes him feel a bit pressured because he is only 17 and he has dreams of leaving city life for the open spaces of Santa Fe. However, when David Jacobs (who goes by Davey) and his brother Les come to the distribution center to start selling newspapers after their father was hurt on the job and got fired, Jack teams up with Davey to lead the strike because Davey is considered the “brains.” Another important character, both in impact to the audience and importance to the plot, is Crutchie. His real name is never revealed, but he has a gimp leg because of polio, which makes him feel really down on himself. However, Jack is always there to protect him. These three boys are the primary roles amongst the newsboys.
The male cast is rounded out with the other newsboys in the ensemble. There’s Les Jacobs, Davey’s younger brother and the youngest of the Newsies and a couple of “scabs” who keep selling newspapers even after the Newsies have declared their strike. The adult male characters consist of Mr. Wiesel, who doles out the newspapers to the boys each day, Joseph Pulitzer who is the publishing giant that runs the New York World and his assistants Bunsen and Seitz. Morris and Oscar Delancey are the twin brothers that work for Wiesel and tend to rough up the Newsies both verbally and physically. Mr. Snyder is the owner of The Refuge, which is a jail for children that is run under unfair conditions, and also the show’s antagonist. There is also a brief appearance by Theodore Roosevelt who was a governor at the time and knows Jack Kelly by slight association given that Jack snuck into his carriage to escape The Refuge.
There are few female roles in the show, but the characters are powerful. There is Katherine Plumber, who is the daring reporter that decides to break into journalism by covering the strike and in the process falls in love with Jack Kelly, Pulitzer’s secretary Hannah who expresses sympathy for the Newsies,and Medda Larkin, the owner of a local theatre that Jack Kelly uses to escape his struggles and that ends up being the location of the Newsies’ rally. These characters are all ones to be admired.
My experience with Newsies started in the summer of 2012 when my sister and I saw a Disney 365 segment about the show during a commercial break on Disney Channel. I saw cute teenage boys who could dance, and I was hooked. Later that same summer, I went to see the show and it was an experience like nothing I had ever felt before. The show made me laugh, cry, and go through a range of emotions! I knew by intermission that this show was something special. Each person in the cast was bursting with talent, and Katherine easily became my top dream role. Unfortunately, because we saw an evening show, my dad did not want to wait at the stage door so that I could meet the cast and get pictures and autographs. I knew that I wanted to go back to see the show again!
Two summers later, I was back in New York to see my Newsies boys and girls! I thought this was going to be my last opportunity, because in August of 2014, the show was set to close. After two years on Broadway, bringing in countless fans both young and old, and being a boost to the weekly grosses of the theatre community, Newsies would be gone. I wanted to soak up every possible moment. This time around, the cast was significantly different as the principal cast members had left for other opportunities and some of the ensemble had moved on as well. As a self-proclaimed theatre nerd, it was so much fun to see a different cast! Even though it was the same show, it was almost entirely new because of the way the actors and actresses portrayed their roles. After the curtain call ended, I booked it out of the theatre to get a good spot in front of the stage door so that I could finally meet some of the people who made my life so special! One of my favorite moments was when I told Corey Cott, who played Jack Kelly at that performance, that I was in tears by the end of him singing Santa Fe, and he hugged me and said he was so sorry but I told him it was all good tears because his performance was so powerful! Each conversation I had was special and can still bring a smile to my face.
A few months later, a national tour was announced, and I was beyond stoked. I looked at where they were coming, and the closest place was Washington, D.C., which is about a 4 hour drive from my hometown. I didn’t have too much hope, but when I talked to my dad about it, he said he would take me as my birthday present! On a hot day in the summer of 2015, my dad and I drove down to Shady Grove, Virginia, and took the metro into the city. We walked around a little, had lunch, and then went to the theatre. I could not stop bouncing from excitement of getting to see this show again! It was an entirely different, but beautiful, experience from the previous times because of the casting. Stagedooring that day was quite a story!
What I really want to share with you are some important life lessons that can be taken from the show. The most important one is that no matter how small you are in the world, you can make a difference! The newsboys banded together, fought for their cause, and won. You can do it too! Another idea to keep is actually one of Roosevelt’s lines in the show: “Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.” Not only is this an actual Theodore Roosevelt quote, but it reminds you to never give up on your dreams and that you can accomplish anything you put your mind to with passion and desire. To end this, I will leave you with one of my favorites. There is a line in the song Something To Believe In, which is the romantic duet between Jack and Katherine, that says “I have something to believe in, now that I know you believe in me.” The reason I love this line so much is because over these past four years, through Twitter interactions with the cast and with the people that run the general Newsies social media accounts, by dressing up as a Newsie for Halloween my sophomore year of high school, and countless times of listening to the original cast recording and learning to play the songs on the piano, Newsies has become my ‘something to believe in.’ I hope that you all can find yours!
For more information about Newsies, you can either contact me or visit www.newsiesthemusical.com.
