By Vivian Washington
Sept. 28, 2015
Dan DeLuca shines as the cast of Disney’s Newsies rocks Madison.
When most people hear about Disney’s Newsies they think about the 1992 Disney film as opposed to the 2012 musical. But, the 2012 musical has been a smash hit on Broadway and is currently on national tour.
Newsies is a very entertaining show. It had magnificent dancing, but there was one thing script wise pulling it down – the romantic relationship between Jack and Katherine. Their song together, “Something to Believe in,” dragged on and felt unnecessary to the plot. In the opening number, “Carrying the Banner,” the diction was so off that I could not even understand what was being said.
Something that might have been helpful was if they’d had a larger cast of newsies (short for newspaper boy). When they showed the different places of New York City, it would have been nice to have more men in the ensemble as to not only have the same three newsies all the time.
The musical showed excellent performances by Angela Govey (Medda Larkin) and Dan DeLuca. Also, the ensemble cast put forth a superb tap routine featured in the song “King of New York.”
Newsies the Musical is about Jack Kelley. Jack is an artist, newsie, and an orphan of the streets. He and all his newsie friends work for Jospeh Pulitzer, the owner of New York World newspaper. When the newsies find out that Pulitzer is jacking up their paper prices, they decide to go on strike with Jack as the head of the union. Along the way, the newsies meet Katherine Pulitzer (Stephanie Styles) who goes by the name Katherine Plumber in order to make a name and career away from her father. They are beaten by the police, hounded by Pulitzer’s goons and Crutchie (Zachary Sayle) is captured and sent to refuge – a horrible juvenile hall where kids are abused.
In act two we find out that Jack has been missing in action. Jack loses all hope and goes to speak with Mr. Pulitzer. Pulitzer bullies Jack into going against the newsies for money and the promise of expunging his criminal record. Ultimately Jack, Katherine, and the other newsies work together by printing a paper that motivates the city’s child laborers. This catches the attention and aid of Governor Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt forces Pulitzer to sit down and deal with the newsies on fair terms once and for all.
Overall, the musical was exiting and definitely worth seeing. Its Madison run ended on Sunday, September 20th but it will be touring for a little while longer in other parts of the country.
Post your comments