Extra, Extra: Jeremy Jordan To Depart NEWSIES for SMASH; Corey Cott Takes Over as Jack Kelly on September 5

Newsies has just announced that Corey Cott will become the show's new leading man, Jack Kelly, beginning Wednesday, September 5th. Cott became the Jack Kelly alternate earlier this month and will continue as alternate until he assumes the role full time.

Jeremy Jordan, who created the role in the show's world premiere production at Paper Mill Playhouse and received Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for his Broadway performance, is scheduled to play his final performance Tuesday, September 4th. He leaves to work full time on his leading role on NBC's 'Smash.'

Corey Cott makes his Broadway debut in Newsies just weeks after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama. His university credits include Suddenly Last Summer, Assassins, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Sweeney Todd, among others. He appeared in several productions at Pittsburgh CLO including Miss Saigon, The Sound of Music and Jesus Christ Superstar and recently in the New York reading of Bare directed by Stafford Arima.

Since bursting onto Broadway in March, Newsies set and then broke five Nederlander Theatre house records on its way to becoming the best selling new musical of the spring. The show received 23 major theatrical nominations – including eight Tony Award nods – and won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Score and Choreography.

Newsies features a score with music by eight-time Academy Award® winner Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman, with a book by four-time Tony® Award winner Harvey Fierstein. Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, Newsies is directed by Jeff Calhoun and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli.

The Broadway company of Newsies also features John Dossett as Joseph Pulitzer, Kara Lindsay as Katherine Plumber, Capathia Jenkins as Medda Larkin, Ben Fankhauser as Davey, Andrew Keenan-Bolger as Crutchie, and Lewis Grosso, and Matthew Schechter alternating the role of Les.

Set in New York City at the turn of the century, Newsies is the rousing tale of Jack Kelly, a charismatic newsboy and leader of a ragged band of teenaged 'newsies,' who dreams only of a better life far from the hardship of the streets. But when publishing titans Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise distribution prices at the newsboys' expense, Jack finds a cause to fight for and rallies newsies from across the city to strike for what's right.

Newsies is inspired by the real-life 'Newsboy Strike of 1899,' when newsboy Kid Blink led a band of orphan and runaway newsies on a two-week-long action against Pulitzer, Hearst and other powerful newspaper publishers.

The Nederlander Theatre box office hours are Monday through Saturday 10am – 8pm and Sunday 11:30am – 6pm. Newsies is performed on the following schedule: Monday – Wednesday at 7:30pm; Friday – Saturday at 8pm; Wednesday & Saturday at 2pm; and Sunday at 3pm. There are exceptions the week of October 1 (prior to Columbus Day), the week of October 29 (Halloween), the week of November 19 (Thanksgiving) and the weeks in and around Christmas. 

Rehearsal Photo by Lorenzo Bevilaqua.