Newsies Now Open-Ended

[broadwayboy101]

Congrats to all involved!
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/dont-stop-the-press-newsies-run-is-now-open-ended/?src=tp

[mmh1019]

it's about time!! :) happy to hear it's open-ended

[aasjb4ever]

This hasn’t been news since the first preview at Papermill.

[Blockhead24]

Shocking

[TheatreKid3]

Congrats to DTP and the entire cast and creative team! It's about time! Wooh!

[bwayphreak234]

shocker.

[kyl3fong2]

FINALLY it's official!!

[Emmaloucbway]

Whoa that's a shocker. What's next: Priscilla: Queen of the Desert to close?

[quizking101]

Woo! Now I don't have to worry about squeezing this in before I go to college in the fall!

[EponineAmneris]

Great news!!!

[The Pud]

So happy for the cast, job security!

[Jonwo]

Not a surprise considering how well's it been selling but glad to hear it confirmed.

[Bwaydide92]

I think Disney did this all on purpose. I don't think they would have brought in such big names like Menken and Fierstein just to license it out. When the economy started tanking they probably realised how they could capitalise on the story of Newsies. I think they manipulated audiences (ingeniously) to get people to rush to get the tickets to help make it a hit, and now that they are more comfortable with it sales they have made it open. They didn't want another Little Mermaid.

I know that when I was planning my trip for this summer I wanted to see Newsies. Unfortunately that hadn't extended it the first time yet so I decided on other shows and now have no time to see it.

This is all speculation of course, but Disney is probably the smartest company in the world, so I'm sure they had a plan all along.

[EatTheBrownie]

Flop movie... I hate to keep pounding that into your heads.

People BEGGED Disney to license it. There were illegal HS productions happening because there is a huge cult following for the film now. The movie still remains an embarrassment to the company, to Eisner who greenlit the thing thinking he could be the man responsible for the return of the musical, and for the lead actor (Christian Bale) who to this day doesn't like talking about it and when he does he mentions how he never wants to do another musical again.

This was made so Disney could make $$$ licensing it.

You ask why Menken was brought in... There wasn't already a trunk of cut songs to just use as MTI had done with Aladdin Jr or Mulan Jr. Don't know if you all know, but even Stephen Schwartz' cut material for Mulan made it into MTIs thing. Newsies has one cut song that Menken has claimed in interviews wasn't even finished (for David's sister).

Your theory is true, though, about Aladdin. THAT was meant to dupe the public. No "official" plans to transfer, but they had every intention of doing it if it was a hit. They saved their butts majorly, though, with the decision of now announcing Broadway outright. The show sucked and would have followed in the footsteps of Mermaid and Tarzan if it opened in NY. The 5th Avenue Theater is in the business of sending shows to Bway. Paper Mill has done it, too, but not on the scale the 5th has done in recent years.

Newsies continues to shock everyone. Including the suits at Disney. And including Alan Menken who didn't want to revisit the material, he wanted to focus on new projects instead.

[CurtainPullDowner]

I'm pleased that the NEWSIES are open ended.
But it's hardly news.ie.

[degrassifan]

Congrats to all involved indeed!

[bdn223]

@eathebrownie
Completely agreed especially about Alladin...Menken even mentioned the Broadway transfer in his Chatterbox interview

Clarification Papermill has never had a Broadway transfer...despite it getting most of the Broadway Critics...which is likly why Disney chose Papermill to give the show some credibility before licencing it..

Also the neaderlanders had to beg disney to take the show to Broadway..this was never in the cards for Newsies, ShumockEr has been trying to quietly extinguish Newsies spark from the begining but Newsies became a forest fire...so he just had to give in and let it run its course.

Lastly if i had to bet he was planning on annoucing this at the Tony's, but Once has gained a ton of momentum..so this Disneys attempt to counteract that. On that note I would expect the National Tour announcement to come the day after the Drama Desks.

[bk]

It was NEVER not open-ended. They did what they did for marketing purposes. Had it tanked then they were covered with "limited engagement." It's all horse manure and now thanks to Disney marketing, you're going to see it happen a lot more, starting with Bring it On.

[Jonwo]

I think Aladdin's gone back to development, the general consensus seemed to be it has potential but it needed more work.

I'm sure Disney are very happy with how Newsies turned out, they'll make more money from Broadway, National Tour and international productions than if they'd simply turned it into a licensing property.

[Bwaydide92]

I agree with bk, but of course we'll never know if that's right. Also, be careful, Disney might be watching us now. hahahah

I don't think Bring It On is doing the same thing. I think the producers are being quite cautious with it. I think they want to make it an open run (I think the tour has been doing well), but don't want to risk too much since it hasn't been a critic favourite like Newsies.

[bwayphreak234]

It was NEVER not open-ended. They did what they did for marketing purposes. Had it tanked then they were covered with "limited engagement." It's all horse manure and now thanks to Disney marketing, you're going to see it happen a lot more, starting with Bring it On.

AGREED. This is why I am rooting for Once to win best musical. Plus Once is a lot more unique and has a better score. I absolutely cannot stand what I have heard of Newsies.

[EricMontreal22]

For once I agree with an entire post of Brownie's (I always wondered how Schwartz felt about a couple of his Mulan songs making it into Mulan Jr)

Isn't Aladdin set to have a second try sometime this year, already?

[ACL2006]

gee, next thing you know they'll announce Newsies will tour....

[Jonwo]

'gee, next thing you know they'll announce Newsies will tour....'

I imagine that'll be announced during or the day after the Tonys, having seen the show it look like it could easily tour with little if any changes.

[JohnyBroadway]

Aladdin will be at the MUNY this summer.

[sorano916]

This is a naive question but what is the outlook for potential tour cast members? I mean, the current newsies are pretty spectacular in dance, tumbling, and (mostly) singing plus they're in their later teens to mid-twenties. Is there a large group of young male actors out there that can pull off what the Broadway cast does? I'm sure that there are great Jacks, Katherines, Cruthies and Daveys out there but the dancing is said to be the standout of this show & I'm wondering if there are guys that can fit those molds.