Deen van Meer
Maybe Wisconsin’s beleaguered union members need to do some more pirouettes and backflips. It’s working for the newsies, the Disney-imagined version of the newsboy strike of 1899.
Newsies, which opened on Sept. 15 and runs through Sept. 20 at Overture Hall, is adorable.
It’s impossible to resist the charms the leap-frogging, tap dancing and smiling orphans who decide to stand up for their rights when the cigar-chomping Joseph Pulitzer and his cronies decide to cut cost by raising prices – not for the consumer, mind you, but for the poor marginalized boys and teens that hawk “papes” in the street.
I nearly injured myself in the parking ramp trying to recreate just one of the energetic dance moves from the show. Christopher Gattelli’s choreography expertly borrows from ballet, tap and gymnastics – showing why Newsies earned a 2012 Tony Award for “best choreography.”
The set, by Tobin Ost, is equally impressive: Giant multi-story scaffoldings glide into different formations, as newsboys dash in and out of closing gaps, shouting and singing from fire escapes and banging on the gated door of The World, Pulitzer’s news empire. Sometimes, as when the boys hijack a basement printing press, video projections enhance the action onstage.
Less impressive is the clunky narrative and on-the-nose writing by Harvey Fierstein. Newsies engages many music theater clichés, borrowing heavily from Annie, Oliver and West Side Story. It also includes an obvious nod to Titanic in the love-story subplot: A poor Irish boy (named Jack) falls for a lovely upper-class woman, drawing her portrait – which, in this case, appears magically and six-feet tall on a projected screen.
The show’s charming protagonist, Jack Kelly (Dan DeLuca) manages to woo the lady reporter Katherine (the excellent Stephanie Styles) while also inspiring his fellow paper sellers to strike. Because it’s a musical, he also faces a crisis of confidence and needs to be bolstered by his nerdy friend Davey (Jacob Kemp), who urges the downtrodden to “Seize the Day.”
In addition to the stellar dancing throughout, the cast has plenty of standouts, including Medda Larkin (Angela Grovey) as the Burlesque performer/theater owner with a soft spot for the newsies. And character actor Michael Gorman steals a couple of scenes as a deli owner, transforming into a street-smart middleman known to the boys as “Weasel.”
The score by Alan Menken and Jack Feldman also brought home a Tony. As a score designed for dancing, it serves its purpose. But overall, I yearned for older musicals the show tries to emulate. On opening night, the orchestra overpowered the singers, whose strong (and not always believable) New York City accents were difficult to understand, especially in song. Some of the best moments came during instrumental dance breaks. I began to yearn for them. The pure artistry and joy stopped my mind from predicting the dialogue.
The tap number that opens the second act, “King of New York,” is the highlight of the show. The newsboys are enjoying their moment in the spotlight as the story about their strike ran “above the fold.” As the fictional Pulitzer puts it, “If it’s not in the paper, it never happened.”
I’m a sucker for a good David-and-Goliath tale, and despite its flaws, Newsies does have you rooting for the boys. Just don’t hurt yourself dancing afterwards.
