The Alan Menken (music) / Jack Feldman (lyrics) / Harvey Fierstein (book) Musical, Newsies, is an interesting but also very canny choice for Dinsey+ Channel to add to their playlist. In the States, it has had a rather chequered history, starting somewhat inauspiciously, before a revamp and finding a cult following and then becoming something of a Broadway phenomenon. Over here though it remains relatively unknown, which is a shame because it has all the right ingredients for a smash hit.
Based on the Disney film, the Musical tells the story of Jack Kelly (played with candid exuberance, masculinity and vulnerability in equal measure by Jeremy Jordan), and the young misfit urchin newspaper sellers who rise up against the newspaper moguls forming a union and negotiating a fair wage and respect from their employers. The story is set in 1899, the year of the real Newsboys' Strike which was instrumental in bringing about child labour reform throughout the USA. The muscial therefore happily mixing historical accuracy with fantasy and romance in much the same way as the Titanic Muscial does, but unlike the aforementioned, Newsies should have absolutely no intention of sinking.
Despite the musical being unimaginative and trite when it comes to plotlines... the righteous underdog fights against the tyranny of the overlord, finally defeating them, whilst also falling in love with the overlord's daughter who disobey's her father and joins forces with the lower ranks to help their cause, one can easily see how a headline such as "Newsies Rocks The World" might also be quite appropriate. The saving grace of this musical is twofold. First the exemplary performances all round; not a weak link in the chain at all; and secondly, the youthful exuberance which shines through in abundance in the high energy acrobatic choreography (Christopher Gattelli). There is a reason the title of this musical is in the plural; the show isn't just about our hero and heroine, it is about ALL the newboys and their story, and so it is unsurprising that all the best songs, and indeed all the showstopping and daredevil choreography, should be given to the entire group of boys.
If you wanted to pigeon-hole the show, then you could possibly think of it as a first-cross between Mary Poppins and West Side Story with a good dollop of Oliver! thrown in for good measure. Directed by Jeff Calhoun (film direction Brett Sullivan), this is a true 'feelgood' show; fast-paced and spectacular The filmed version helps considerably in being able to emote with the characters as Sullivan gives us many close-ups and small groups, which really emphasies emotion and reactions which might otherwise have been lost on a large stage. Even if the characterisations are stereotypical (they are) and the storyline predictable (it is), we still are quite emotional and are carried away with the story like a baby fascinated by a beam of light.
And despite all of this, the show contains some of the best lines I have heard in a Musical for a very long time:
"New York's fine for those with a big strong door to lock it out."
or
"There's only one thing worse than a hard heart, and that's a soft head."
There was only one thing I was not particularly fond of in this otherwise unsullied show, and that was the 3 large Mechano-like metallic self-assembled structures which were used endlessly and vagariously throughout as staircases, rooms, balconies, etc. They worked, and worked quite well, but they did get rather tedious after the first 20 minutes or so, and the musical is over two hours' long!
The Muscial is available to watch on the Disney+ Channel.
Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
on - 11/8/20.
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