Review Roundup: Disney's NEWSIES on Tour

The North American tour of Disney's NEWSIES opened earlier this year in Philadelphia. The Tony Award-winning smash hit musical will play 25 cities over 43 weeks, with more to be announced. The musical just landed in Chicago, and BWW's rounded up the reviews so far...

The production features Dan DeLuca as "Jack Kelly", Steve Blanchard as "Joseph Pulitzer", Stephanie Styles as "Katherine", Angela Grovey as "Medda Larkin", Jacob Kemp as "Davey", Zachary Sayle as "Crutchie", and Vincent Crocilla and Anthony Rosenthal alternating the role of "Les."

NEWSIES, the new American musical, features a Tony Award-winning score with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman, a book by Harvey Fierstein. Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, NEWSIES is directed by Jeff Calhoun and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune: This is a show where the grinning ensemble is the star -- along with the gifted choreographer, Christopher Gattelli, who turned the dance numbers into a fabulous showcase for very young male dancers, just as long as they can do cartwheels, headstands and any and all other tricks. Most of the show's big numbers are of communal defiance...This is a stellar tour, replete with all the scenery from New York, which displays itself very nicely in the Oriental Theatre...The principles are decent. Dan DeLuca does not overdo it as Jack Kelly, settling for being a likable, sensitive dude and a good romantic match for the reporter Katherine, played with better-than-Broadway spunk by Stephanie Styles...And I especially liked Jacob Kent, a very likable Davey, and Angela Grovey, who plays Medda Larkin and who clearly is having a blast...The road-"Newsies," which is likely to do big business this holiday season, is a pumped-up, belt-it-out, stand-on-your-head, sell-it-to-the-back-of-the-house show.

Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun: Although more restraint and lower volume would be welcome every now and then, the relentless pace of "Newsies" fits with a plot set in the days of cutthroat newspaper competition...This is every inch an ensemble show. That means an awful lot of rousing, stage-filling numbers, fueled with demanding balletic/acrobatic routines choreographed by Christopher Gattelli. The moves start looking similar after a while, but the well-honed tour cast, cleverly directed by Jeff Calhoun, makes just about everything feel fresh and spontaneous. Dan DeLuca is a natural as the alternately wistful, impudent and crafty Jack; he sings stylishly, too. Stephanie Styles has an effective romp as the sympathetic, pre-feminist reporter Katherine, who, of course, falls for Jack. Jacob Kemp gets to show a good deal of range as Davey, who emerges from his shell to become Jack's spine-firm lieutenant.

Sharon Eberson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Disney's Broadway darling hasn't lost any of its headline-making luster in the transfer to the road, with a talented company equal to the challenge of Christopher Gattelli's Tony-winning athletic dance numbers...Newcomer Dan DeLuca as strike leader Jack Kelly, sporting a thick-as-frozen-buttah accent, and Stephanie Styles as a reporter on the side of the Newsies lead a strong ensemble of young triple threats...The creative team, including Tony-nominated director Jeff Calhoun, a North Hills export, hasn't stopped tinkering. The touring production introduces a new Feldman-Menken song for the character of Crutchy (Zachary Sayles), bringing to eight the new songs for the musical, including the inspirational anthem "The World Will Know." Songs such as "Seize the Day," "King of New York" and "Santa Fe" are in the Menken tradition of tunes that get in your head and stay with you, but the big story in "Newsies" is the ensemble of young male dancers and their leaps and bounds...If you're looking for upbeat, family entertainment, you can leap for joy that "Disney's Newsies" is here.

Alice Carter, TribLive: It's easy to see why it was popular. Director and Pine-Richland graduate Jeff Calhoun and choreographer Christopher Gattelli shaped it into a musical that is lively, engaging and fun to watch. It's sincere without being sappy and has an abundance of rousing anthems and a couple of ballads from composer Alan Menken and lyricist Jack Feldman and a smart, articulate book by Harvey Fierstein...But what makes this show a joy to watch is its huge cast of young, talented and skilled male dancers who swoop, tumble, cartwheel, pirouette and tap through some highly muscular dance numbers and make it look effortless. "Newsies" offers all the exuberant songs and dance moves of "Footloose" but has the advantage of a story with real-life issues, concerns and consequences...It's also a well-done, brand-new musical that you can enjoy right now with or without your children.

Frank Rizzo, Hartford Courant: Show has as much non-stop exuberance as when I saw it on Broadway. Fine casting throughout (Dan DeLuca in the lead role that Jeremy Jordan originated on Broadway) but the star of the show is the hardest-working dance ensemble around...it's about newspaper boys at the turn of the last century in New York, but the show really is about that all-American theme of triumph over injustice in the face of adversity -- and that says musical to me. But this show really is about the dancing and Christopher Gattelli's Tony Award-winning dances...Harvey Fierstein has crafted a very savvy, funny-enough book that also pays its respects to the female side of things. It's also pretty nuanced script for a kid-centric show, especially when the issue shifts from the newspaper-boy strike to larger issues of the day, and connecting the strike with overall social outrages of the day regarding children.

Howard Shapiro, Shapiro on Theater: ...it's as thrilling and robust as it was when it first appeared on Broadway two years ago...when I saw it and was blown away by the talented cast -- they handle director Jeff Calhoun's dynamic staging as if they'd been performing it for months, not nights. They perform in great urchin style, in Jess Goldstein's poor-kid costumes and on Tobin Ost's remarkable set of steel structures that move into various positions to create different scenes and most visibly, punchy effects for the endings of show-stopping numbers. Dan DeLuca plays the newsie who organizes the rest of them, and he's a full-voiced charmer, yet his delivery's so stylized it sometimes sounds as though Jesse Jackson had been his speech coach...Jacob Kemp and Zachary Sayle are excellent as two newsboys prominent in the plot.

Steve Barnes, Times Union: "Newsies" is terrifically entertaining. The hit Broadway musical...in a production that blasts the audience with youthful enthusiasm and energy, succeeds on stage in ways that many critics, myself included, thought the movie did not when it was released in 1992...The result is broadly appealing, albeit broadly characterized, and the songs, several of which are reprised multiple times, are generically catchy without being memorable. Though dramatically thin and facile, this is superbly accomplished Broadway entertainment, put together with such professionalism and performed with such zest that its shortcomings are easy to overlook...Calhoun moves the action fluidly, almost continuously...and the choreography throughout is so athletic and masculine it borders on macho parody at times (there are about three dozen cartwheels and several full-layout-position front and back flips). Bright-voiced DeLuca has the necessary magnetism and yearning from a leader with the soul of an artist, Jacob Kemp is solid as Davey, the nebbishy brains behind Jack's star power.

Bob Goepfert, The Record: This production has a great cast who are phenomenal dancers, good singers and excellent actors. The technical work is amazing and director Jeff Calhoun keeps a book heavy show from slowing down. It is one of the most exciting dance shows to come to town in a long time. The 16-member ensemble is fantastic as they performs backward and forward summersaults (with and without hands) spins, leaps, lifts and all types of synchronized movement. It's physical and it's beautiful to watch. Remarkably not only are the members of the ensemble marvelous dancers, the production gives each member an opportunity to create a character and here too they excel as each newsboy becomes a legitimate character in the show...The leader of the strike is Jack Kelly and Dan DeLuca shows the reluctance of this strong man to take on an apparent lost cause. DeLuca plays Kelly with strength and restraint which brings at least an inner conflict to a morality play. As his love interest Katherine, a Nelly Blye-like reporter...Stephanie Styles brings a modern sensibility to the woman who is probably the smartest character in the piece. Styles not only creates a vivid character, she has the best singing voice in the cast.

Check back for updates!

Photo Credit: Disney; Deen Van Meer

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