'Newsies' is even better on Broadway

When Disney’s stage version of the film Newsies made its debut last fall at the Paper Mill Playhouse, it was met with rave reviews and talk of a Broadway transfer. This was a surprise to everyone involved since the show was always meant to go directly into secondary licensing so that the schools of the nation could finally see their dreams come true and produce their own live stage production of the cult film.  They will have to wait, because although the show is advertised as a limited run through August, there may be no stopping Newsies on Broadway for a long time.  It also seems silly to think that there won’t be a profitable national tour, though Disney has made no formal announcements.  Somehow, though I can’t exactly identify the reasons, Newsies on Broadway is better than it was in New Jersey.  There are numerous little changes that have gone into subtly improving the production, though it largely seems unchanged.  There are new songs, though as I watched the production I could not identify them.  The choreography seems to build over the course of the production now, where it used to seem inorganic and simply a string of circus routines without direct connection to the story.  Whatever the tweaks may be, they work beautifully, making Broadway’s Newsies a tight package of family entertainment that delivers exactly what we all hope a good Broadway musical in New York ought to give us.  The show is delightful all the way around.

This doesn't mean the show doesn’t still have some failings, but it’s just that those failings don’t seem so important when surrounded by Alan Menken’s rousing score and a pack of hugely talented dancer/singers putting them over.  The heroin of the story, Katherine (still played by the spunky Kara Lindsay), still retains dialogue that registers as too contemporary in a world where everyone else is consistently period in terms of the rules of this show.  The showgirl character, Medda Larkin, is still underwritten, though she is now appealingly played by Capathia Jenkins in flashier costumes and with a new song, “That’s Rich.”  I couldn’t tell for certain without examining a script, but the character of “Crutchie” (Andrew Keenan-Bolger) seemed somewhat reduced.  His is a character distinctive by his lame leg and his crutch, which is used to play for sympathy when we are told that off stage he is being treated poorly in juvenile prison.  Since we never see his plight, the dramatic potential for the poor character is completely lost.  Also, one of the better songs, “Santa Fe,” which dictates a plot point that the hero, Jack (Jeremy Jordan), wants to move to the Southwest, seems only left in the story because a stage production of the film could not live without that song.  Nothing about the development of the rest of the story supports Jack’s desire to move out of New York.  His new talents and true future surround his amazing natural talent as an artist and everything regarding his character arc has to do with this idea, making “Santa Fe” seem wedged in.

John Dossett is still in as the villain, Joseph Pulitzer, with a new song, “The Bottom Line.” Maybe it’s the new song or a subtle adjustment of the lines, but the still underwritten Pulitzer seems less of a melodrama villain now and more of a real person.  Ben Frankhauser continues to be excellent, both in character and in voice, as Davey.  Lewis Grosso and Matthew J. Schechter share the role of the young Les, a character that gives the right quotient of Disney cuteness to the proceedings.  This character is responsible for a good deal of genuine humor and entertaining business.  If this were Bambi, he would be Thumper.  Several boys of the chorus are familiar from TV’s “So You Think You Can Dance” and their exceptional talents are put to very good use, making the show a sensation of a dance exhibition.

Tobin Ost’s unit set in combination with  Sven Ortel’s projections cover the look and feel of New York one hundred years ago with a contemporary eye––serving the needs of the play while presenting the story in modern terms.  Along with Jess Goldstein’s evocative costumes the entire package is appealingly today while celebrating the triumphs of boys from a yesterday long ago.  In the same breath, the astonishment is that not only did the newspaper boys of old New York instigate change with their own tenacity, but the boys before us on stage are accomplishing something quite wonderful in their own right by singing and dancing their hearts out with excellence in the good tradition of old Broadway.  This combination is what makes Newsies really succeed.

Source: Examiner