TV: NEWSIES Open Call in New York City!

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Paper Mill Playhouse will open its 2011-2012 season with the premiere of a new Disney stage musical, Newsies. Featuring music by eight time Academy Award®-winning composer Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Sister Act, The Little Mermaid), lyrics by Jack Feldman and a new book by four-time Tony® Award winner Harvey Fierstein (La Cage aux Folles, Torch Song Trilogy), Newsies is adapted for the stage from the live-action Disney feature film musical. The production is being directed at Paper Mill by Tony® nominee Jeff Calhoun (The Will Rogers Follies, Grey Gardens). The show begins performances on Thursday, September 15. The official press opening is scheduled for Sunday, September 25. Recently, BroadwayWorld stopped by the Newsies open call in New York City and went inside the audition room.  Click below to watch the men's dance call and hear from Calhoun and the show's choreographer, Christopher Gattelli!

The film Newsies has grown into a cult phenomenon with a generation having grown up on the movie's driving, infectious score since its 1992 theatrical release and subsequent DVD, released in 2002 in response to demand from fans. Its popularity has grown so dramatically, in fact, that - of all the Disney film musicals not yet adapted to the stage - Newsies has for years been the single most requested title by professional and amateur theatre groups, according to the world's largest dramatic licensing agent MTI. This new stage version introduces several brand- new songs by the original team of Menken and Feldman while keeping many of the beloved songs from the film, which featured a screenplay by Bob Tzudiker & Noni White (Tarzan, 102 Dalmatians).

Newsies is inspired by the real life ‘Newsboy Strike of 1899,' when newsboy Kid Blink led the ragged orphans and runaways known as newsies on a two-week long action against Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst and other powerful newspaper publishers. Set in New York City at the turn of the century, the musical is the tale of newsie Jack Kelly, who dreams of a better life far from the hardship of the streets. But when Pulitzer and Hearst raise distribution prices at the newsies' expense, Jack finds a cause to fight for and rallies his army of newsies to strike.

For more information, visit www.papermill.org.