By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Being a musical “Disney’s Newsies: The Broadway Musical” has a love story. What’s really at the heart of the show is the collective will and energy of the title characters, the bedraggled, downtrodden newspaper peddlers in turn of the 20th century New York City.
“Newsies,” based on the movie that was based on a historic strike in 1899, opens today (Thursday, June 20) at Perrysburg High School. The show staged by Perrysburg Musical Theatre continues Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. with a matinee Sunday at 2 p.m. Visit perrysburgmusicaltheatre.org for ticket information.
The sprawling city is a trap for the hero Jack Kelly (Collin Smith). At 17 he feels his life is already passing him by. In the opening number he tells his best friend Crutchie (Lillian Buck) about his dreams of “Santa Fe,” a place in his mind so wonderful that Crutchie’s lame leg may get better there. The ballad introduces us to Jack and to Smith’s strong voice, both will guide the audience surely through the story follows.
Here in New York Jack, Crutchie, and dozens of others make what living they can as newsies, peddlers of Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. They live on the streets and the dark corners of the city. They buy their papers, and then sell them, eating the cost of those they don’t move. And that’s probably as good a meal as they’ll get that day. Times are tough — an ongoing trolley strike isn’t enough of a headline to attract buyers.
Times are tough for Pulitzer (Steven Sloan) as well. What he wouldn’t do for another war.
Short of that he decides to raise the price of the papers for the newsies. The idea is that this will force them to sell more papers. What he doesn’t expect is that he’ll wind up in a different kind of war with “Captain” Jack leading the charge.
Jack has plenty of help though. Davey (Max Lay) and Les (Isaac Weese) are new kids on the street. When their father is injured on the job and is fired, they have to go out to feed their family. That they have a family that eats a home-cooked meal together makes them outliers among the newsies. The closest Jack has to a mother is Medda (Ebone Waweru), an entertainer and nightclub owner. When Waweru belts out “That’s Rich” it adds another dimension to the show. (This and other numbers come from the pens of lyricist Jack Feldman and composer Alan Menken.)
For his part, Davey hopes this working life is temporary, so he and Les can get back to school. The 11-year-old Les is thrilled with this change of pace and is willing to tuck himself under Jack’s wing.
Jack is boisterous, boastful, brash… qualities that help him survive on the street. Yet he’s also comfortable in his role as big brother to the rest of the gang.
Davey, though skeptical, uses his schooling to provide some grounding to the newsies’ rebellion against Pulitzer. Les’ wide-eyed excitement helps the audience connect with the energy of the newsies.
Newspaper reporter Katherine Plumber (Mara Connor) is trying to break out of the society pages, and this “children’s crusade” seems the right story to do it. As a fellow rebel against the status quo she identifies with them. Despite Jack’s aggressive flirting, he wins her heart over as well.
But when the rebellion turns violent, and bodies are broken and Crutchie ends up in the dreaded Refuge, Jack’s devotion to the others is used against him.
But this is a Broadway musical, and nothing works better in the fight against injustice than a few rousing chorus numbers.
The Perrysburg production — directed by Marshall Kupresanin with music direction by Alli Rader and choreography by Kaylee Hull — delivers those.
The energy explodes as the newsies rally on “Carrying the Banner,” “Seize the Day,” “King of New York,” and “Once and For All.”
Seems like every member of the cast, no matter how small, gets a turn at center stage during these numbers. This is not a mob, but a band of individuals bonded together in this fight.
That collective exuberance is something a theatergoer is bound to love.
