Review: DISNEY'S NEWSIES at New Theatre & Restaurant

“DISNEY’S NEWSIES “The Broadway Musical” is an all-new, high energy, high- performance level, musical theater production at The New Theatre & Restaurant in Overland Park.  NEWSIES uses the true story of the New York Newsboys strike of 1899 as its founding inspiration previously told on a 1992 Disney film of the same name.   

This production of NEWSIES, directed and choreographed by Jerry Jay Cranford and assisted by Christina Burton, features a cast of twenty-two dancers and singers, plus constantly in motion LED backdrops, a bridge flown high off the stage floor, combined with three matching stair/tower units strategically moving about the stage, and an eleven-piece orchestra. 

If NEWSIES sounds like an extravaganza that is because it is.  It is the kind of show that will welcome the entire family during its current three-month residency at New Theatre & Restaurant.

Follow me back to the turn of the twentieth century.  Afternoon daily newspapers were sold mainly by young hawkers on street-corners.  The level of sales in those days depended on the photos above the fold, the flashiness of the headline, and the aggressiveness of the young salespeople.  The reader price per copy in 1899 was around one cent per copy.

The curtain rises on two ragged newsboys on a high platform.  They are Jack Kelly (Eric William Geil) and Crutchie (Lucas Lowry) as turn-of-the-century newspaper vendors.  The boys are alone in the big city, scrounging for food, sleeping where they can, and supporting themselves by peddling newspapers.

Jack dreams of a better place than the rat-infested metropolis.  He dreams of a cleaner, better place to live; perhaps New Mexico… Santa Fe.

Their day is beginning and down on the stage floor, an enthusiastic dance sequence and song “Carrying the Banner” ensues with its inevitable reprises combined with flips, round-offs, and other sundry gymnastics.

The scene shifts to the office of Joseph Pulitzer.  Pulitzer is displeased with profits.  He increases his profits by charging the newspaper vendors more for what they sell.  And that sets up one of the show’s major conflicts. 

Next, there needs to be a “Tiny Tim” character “Crutchie (Lucas Lowry)” who will be mistreated, a smart best friend character “Davey (Sheridan),” a villain “ Joe Pulitzer (Christopher Sanders),” a comedy friend “Medda Larkin (Jessica Brooke Seals),” and a secondary villain “Warden Snyder (Henry Morgan).” Finally, we need to have a love interest for Jack.  She is Katherine Pulitzer (Julie Pope).  Katherine is a crusading reporter who also happens to be Joseph Pulitzer’s daughter.    

Take a carefully formulated recipe, mix proper ingredients, add a generous helping of proper talent, and bake under the supervision of expert professional directors.  And Voila!   NEWSIES THE BROADWAY MUSICAL becomes a real crowd pleaser.

You have to give everyone involved with this production a lot of credit.  This is a young dancer’s show.  All the performers do a super job. There is limited stage space and this director, set designer, company, and producer use every inch to the utmost.

The history is a little loose in NEWSIES.  The strike in 1899 is fact.  Mr. Pulitzer was not however present.  By this time, he had lost most of his sight and lived in seclusion aboard his yacht “Liberty.”  Pulitzer did have a daughter named Katherine (after her Mother), but she died in childhood at two years of age in 1884.

The show features music by Disney house-composer Alan Menken.  Menken first came to wide attention for his ever-clever score of Off-Broadway’s LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS.  His Broadway shows include BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, THE LITTLE MERMAID, KING DAVID, SISTER ACT, and ALADDIN plus dozens of animated musicals for Disney. Menken is one of few composers or performers to have been awarded at least one Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award (EGOT). Lyrics for NEWSIES are by Jack Feldman, and a libretto by the inimitable Harvey Feierstein.

Back in the day, New York (and similar cities) had multiple newspapers with multiple daily editions.  The vicious competition between newspaper owners like Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolf Hearst, and Adolph Ochs did not stop owner cooperation on certain business matters.  (The Ochs’ family still retains control of the New York Times.) Competition did not stop publishers from coordinating on business concerns (like pay scales). 

Vendors paid the newspapers fifty cents per hundred copies in advance. If the vendor sold out, he or she might profit $.50 per day or about $3.50 per week.  If it was a dull news day or raining, the newspaper would still get its money, but the child vendor might earn nothing. Returns were not allowed. 

Around the time of the Spanish American War in 1898, many publishers raised their prices to the newspaper carriers from fifty cents to sixty cents per hundred papers. At the end of the war in 1899, some publishers dropped prices; others (like the majors) did not. This took a big bite out of a newsboy’s possible profits.

Unscrupulous district managers sometimes intentionally shorted their newsboy contractors.  Instead of handing out the hundred papers paid for, only ninety-eight of ninety-nine were actually dispensed and that was the trigger for the 1899 strike.  Paper Carriers on Long Island caught themselves being shorted, chased the distribution wagon, tipped it over, and ran off with armloads of unpaid for newspapers.

This was not the first time for a strike, but it was the first time that young workers tried organization.  They got the use of a local theatre to hold a successful and publicized rally.  It soon inspired similar job actions in Cincinnati, Lexington, Nashville and nationwide.    

In only two weeks, circulation of the New York afternoon newspapers plunged from 360,000 copies daily to only 125,000.  The publishers soon agreed to negotiate price and other working conditions with the newsboys.  The signature concession by owners was an agreement that they would take returns of unsold inventory.

Perhaps more importantly, the newsboys job action focused national attention on child labor in industry.  Reform efforts became widespread. The National Child Labor Committee was formed in 1904. By publishing information on the lives and working conditions of young workers, the committee helped mobilize popular support for state-level child labor laws.

These laws were often paired with compulsory education laws designed to curtail child labor. In 1906, Republican Senator Albert J. Beveridge introduced the first national child labor bill oddly later vetoed by then President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.

As usual, service and the meal are excellent at New Theatre.  The logistics of feeding 620 patrons in about an hour is mind boogling.

“Newsies” continues at the New Theatre & Restaurant through September 8.    Tickets are available at www.newtheatre.com.

Photos are by Mike and Vincent with cooperation from New Theatre & Restaurant 

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