Seize the Day! NEWSIES National Tour Will Play Final Performance This Fall

Disney Theatrical Productions announced today that following the conclusion of the NEWSIES North American tour on October 2, 2016, multiple regional productions of the show will commence in summer 2017, in response to overwhelming public demand.

NEWSIES will be mounted in over a dozen regional theaters, including such nationally-regarded houses as Tuacahn Amphitheatre (Ivins, Utah), Pittsburgh CLO (Pittsburgh, PA), Fulton Theatre (Lancaster, PA) and Music Theatre Wichita (Wichita, KS). Professional theatres can request stage rights for NEWSIES exclusively through Music Theatre International (212-541-4684, www.MTIshows.com).

The North American tour of NEWSIES will play 23 additional engagements before making its final stop at Bass Concert Hall in Austin, TX. By the time the tour concludes it will have played a total of 784 performances during 70 engagements in 65 cities over two years since launching in Schenectady, NY in October 2014.

To date, the critically-acclaimed tour has played 557 performances during 47 engagements, entertained more than one million people and grossed over $75 million. NEWSIES set box office records in theatres across the country, including The Oriental Theatre in Chicago and The Orpheum Theatre Minneapolis.

NEWSIES's improbable longevity and reach has been driven from the beginning by an indefatigable fan base. Beginning as a pilot regional production at Paper Mill Playhouse, mounted only as a template for licensing, NEWSIES was called to New York by critical acclaim, opening on Broadway March 29, 2012 for an intended limited run of just 101 performances. The show's fiercely devoted fans had other ideas, however; they drove the show to a run of 1005 performances, attendance of more than one million and a gross of over $100M.

"We are enormously grateful to our fans, those self-proclaimed 'fansies,' whose passion for NEWSIES propelled the show to a Tony Award-winning Broadway run and then to a record-breaking tour," said Thomas Schumacher, President and Producer, Disney Theatrical Productions. "That enthusiasm remains palpable as NEWSIES is the most requested Disney stage title among regional theatres, community theatres and high schools in North America. I am so delighted that the life of this classic underdog tale will continue to reach new audiences."

NEWSIES, the new American musical, features a Tony Award-winning score with music by eight-time Academy Award winner Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman, a book by four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein and is produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, NEWSIES is directed by Tony nominee Jeff Calhoun and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, who won a 2012 Tony Award for his work. The entire creative team has reunited to bring the break-out smash musical to audiences across North America.

While on Broadway, NEWSIES set and broke seven Nederlander Theatre house records and became the highest-grossing show from the 2011-12 Broadway season. 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.

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 stage version introduces seven brand-new songs by the original team of Menken and Feldman, including a song written specifically for the tour called 'Letter from the Refuge,' while keeping many of the beloved songs from the film, including 'Carrying the Banner, 'Seize the Day,' 'King of New York' and 'Santa Fe.'

Since the film's 1992 theatrical release and subsequent DVD release, NEWSIES has grown into a cult phenomenon, and for years had been the single most requested title of all the Disney musical films not yet adapted for the stage. (The film featured a screenplay by Bob Tzudiker & Noni White (Tarzan, 102 Dalmatians).)

Photo by Deen van Meer