EXTRA! EXTRA! Newsies is The

Muny’s Best Show of the Year!

                 by Pat Lindsey

Here’s the scoop, so read all about it…The Muny has saved the best for last by presenting Newsies as its final show of the 99th season. Newsies has exuberance in its balletic, precision tap and acrobatic dance numbers, a heart-tugging story, and a catchy score. Combined with a bit of history, an unlikely love story, and a youth ensemble unique to The Muny, Newsies is an evening of musical entertainment that will make you want to leap onstage and join the Children’s Crusade.

Newsies is based on the 1899 newsboy strike that was provoked by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst when they decided to charge their delivery boys more for their newspapers in order to increase their own profits. Times were already tough enough for the poor New York orphans who sold “papes” from sun up to sundown on the “stinkin’ streets of New York.” A decrease in their revenues without any warning was more than they could bear.

Enraged by the unfairness of it all, newsboy Jack Kelly (Jay Armstrong Johnson) boldly stands up before his fellow newsies and convinces them to put down their papes and strike. The Lower Manhattan boys then go to the other New York boroughs to unite all the newsies in a stirring protest that reminded me of Les Miserables. It would have been difficult, if not impossible, for this “ragtag gang of ragamuffins” to successfully fight the newspaper magnates if it had not been for a courageous young female reporter from another paper named Katherine Plumber (Tessa Grady), who just happens to be Pulitzer’s daughter. Katherine is supportive of the strike for equality and fairness and gives the newsboys the publicity they need in a competing newspaper.

Before and during the strike, the audience gets to know the main characters. We fall in love with Jack Kelly, the strong, artistically talented leader of the newsies, and it’s easy to understand why educated and well-bred Katherine Plumber falls in love with him, too. Crutchie (Daniel Quadrino), the disabled boy on crutches who has been mistreated and ends up imprisoned in the Refuge, earns our sympathy and emphasizes the need for child labor laws.

Davey (Spencer Davis Milford), who is not an orphan, but sells paper to support his family, becomes Jack’s wingman during the strike. Davey’s little brother, Les (Gabriel Cytron) steals the show with his soon-to-be-10-years-old worldliness and gutsy charm. In the predominantly male cast, Medda Larkin (Ta’Rea Campbell) is the other female who supports Jack and the strike and allows the newsies to use her theater for their rally. But the newsies and their protest would go nowhere without the brains and resources of Katherine Plumber, the driving force.

The main characters give rousing performances in song and dance with “Seize the Day.” Jay Armstrong Johnson as Jack dreams of a better place in the great outdoors when he sings, “Santa Fe,” and Ta’Rea Campbell as Medda Larkin finishes her song, “That’s Rich,” on a long, powerful note. Tessa Grady as Katherine Plumber tap dances on tabletops and sings a beautiful duet with Jack in “Something to Believe In.” The entire cast, ensemble, and youth ensemble pull the audience into the fight and tug on our heartstrings. If the applause on opening night is any indication of how the audience received Newsies, the headline should read, “Big Win for Newsies!”

Mike Isaacson, the Muny’s Artistic Director & Executive Producer, wanted to be among the first to produce Newsies as early as 2010, but after its premier in New Jersey, it went straight to Broadway for a two-year run followed by a two-year national tour. He was finally able to bring it to The Muny this year, and obviously knew that a show written by the trio of Harvey Fierstein (the book), Alan Menken (the music), and Jack Feldman (the lyrics) would be a success. Because of Newsies and the six shows that preceded it, The Muny remains “alone in its greatness” as it closes the curtain on a fantastic 2017 season and prepares for a phenomenal 100th anniversary in 2018 right where we live…right here in St. Louis.

     Newsies is being performed nightly at 8:15 p.m. from now through Sunday, Aug. 13, at The Muny in Forest Park.

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