Disney's musical Newsies (Broadway premiere, 2012), hydroplaning through the Hobby Center via Theatre Under the Stars, is the perfect antidote to the current Fourth Estate. Whatever you think of our national press and its lowest credible rating in decades, this musical, set at the turn of last century, will confirm that nothing has changed in 125 years. Since the days of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, the national press is as venal and out for a profit as ever.
Loosely – very loosely – based on the 1899 Newsboys’ Strike in New York City that pitted the underprivileged hawkers of newspapers against the 5th Avenue posh lords of publishing, the musical’s premise is based on economics, not bias.
Pulitzer, the influential newspaper publisher of the yellow-journal The World, faces dwindling profits against Hearst’s New York Journal, and decides to raise his bottom line by charging his newsboys ten cents more for 100 papers. Pulitzer cares nothing for the fate of these poor Bowery boys who barely subsist on the paltry profits. If they don’t sell their allotment, too bad; he’s already reaped a few pennies from each of them. Fed up at this flagrant noblesse oblige, they rebel and strike for fair treatment.
That is the premise of Newsies: a soft paean to labor unions painted with the high underdog gloss of Disney.
With music by Oscar and Tony-winner Alan Menken (Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, et al.), lyrics by Jack Feldman (Tony winner for Newsies), and a book by Harvey Fierstein (multiple Tony winner for Torch Song Trilogy, La Cage aux Folles, and Hairspray), this nimble adaptation of the 1992 Disney live-action movie is light-years ahead of the clunky film.
The musical film was an epic bomb, one of Disney’s least profitable movies in ages. But when it was released on video, it blasted into cult status. Pre-Glee, the film, as bland and overblown as it was, spoke to the next generation. Pre-teens relished the anarchic spirit and sang “Seize the Day,” “King of New York” and “Santa Fe” until their mix tapes wore out.
When the Disney executives realized the overwhelming interest, they saw a gold mine, especially after the phenomenal successes of their Broadway endeavors Lion King, Beauty, and Mary Poppins. They wisely added a love interest for idealistic Jack (Pierre Marais, earnest and vocally athletic) with a young wanna-be Nellie Bly journalist, Katherine (Cailen Fu, edgy and proto-feminist with focused soprano); added more upbeat anthems; and refocused the vaudeville queen Medda Larkin with a better song, “That’s Rich,” although she still hasn’t much to do here – though Christina Wells parlays “not much” into showstopping blaze.
What the Disney wizards have achieved, and what the wizards at Theatre Under the Stars have solidified, under Ryan Scarlata’s ultra-physical direction, is showbiz prestidigitation. While the designer of the steel-girder/fire escape setting is unmentioned in the Playbill – an oversight which must be corrected posthaste – the projections and video design by Greg Emetaz and Kylee Loera are period-evocative, as are Colleen Grady’s Lower East Side costumes and Jonathan Spencer’s first-rate lighting.
The musical is now as much of a cult favorite as the old movie. Some in the audience sported newsboy caps and short pants, and a few arrived with black eyes and dirty faces. They love this show.
It’s easy to see why. It goes down smooth. No longer kids in any conceivable form, the aged “boys” are the most spirited since the sexed-up youth in Spring Awakening. Watch Cole Zieser as Race, Luis-Pablo Garcia as Crutchie, Ben Diamond as Davey, and Christopher Tipps as Specs as they tumble, cartwheel, and springboard across the stage in William Carlos Angulo’s gymnastic choreography while singing out a storm. Everybody does.
At the “Finale Ultimo,” the entire troupe struts down to the footlights and leaps toward us. A strobe light freezes them in mid-air – tumultuous youth, teen spirit caught in a flash frame. That is Newsies in photo finish.
Newsies continues through June 2 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at the Hobby Center, 800 Bagby. For more information, call 713-558-8887 or visit tuts.com.$40-$139.
