Susan Granger’s review of “Newsies” (Nederlander Theatre: 2011-2012 season)
Disney’s back on Broadway – with a rockin’, relentlessly rousing musical called “Newsies.” Based on a real-life strike called by struggling young newspaper vendors back in 1899, it chronicles their rebellion when exploitive publisher Joseph Pulitzer hikes his distribution prices at their expense.
Leader of the pack of urchins is defiant 17 year-old Jack Kelly (Jeremy Jordan, looking like a young Leonardo Di Caprio), who befriends Crutchie (Andrew Keenan-Bolger), whose leg has been badly injured, urging him to think of a brighter future, far away in “Santa Fe.” Working with his wise-cracking kid brother Les (played alternately by Lewis Grosso/Matthew J. Schecter) because their dad has lost his job, Davey (Ben Fankhauser) is their brainy buddy, who advises Jack that he can’t call a strike until he organizes the scrappy, street-wise, often homeless ragamuffins who hawk the daily ‘paps’ and forms a union. That infuriates the scheming Pulitzer (John Dossett), whose daughter, Katherine (Kara Lindsay) is a classy, resourceful cub reporter who not only supports the protest but also doubles as Jack’s love interest. When the newsboys need a meeting place that’s bigger than Jacobi’s Deli, that space is provided by a sympathetic vaudeville queen, Medda Larkin (Capathia Jenkins) and, eventually, they’re supported by New York’s then-Governor Theodore Roosevelt (Kevin Carolan).
Fancifully re-imagined by Harvey Fierstein (“La Cage aux Follies”) as a masculine “Norma Rae”-for-teens and directed by Jim Calhoun, the stage is dominated by set designer Tobin Ost’s huge metal staircases and scaffolds which roll back and forth – like trees in an urban jungle – and are inventively utilized by choreographer Christopher Gatelli. After surviving the barrage of critical bullets aimed at “Bonnie and Clyde,” hunky, charismatic Jeremy Jordan triumphs here and is sweetly supported by soprano Kara Lindsay warbling the inspirational “Watch What Happens.”
When the same child-labor story was made into a 1992 Disney movie, it flopped. But the tuneful score by Alan Mencken (music) and Jack Feldman (lyrics) has endured and has finally found its place, not only on Broadway but, ultimately, at The Magic Kingdom, where “Seize the Day”-themed, family-friendly musicals are destined to last forever.