Last Edition: NEWSIES Stars Recall Favorite Memories- Thayne Jasperson

NEWSIES plays its final performance on Broadway this coming Sunday, August 24, but BroadwayWorld (and the rest of New York, we hope) isn't ready to let the musical leave just yet! Throughout the week, we continue the Newsies love by bringing you favorite memories from a slew of the current and past stars of the show!

THAYNE JASPERSON (Darcy, Jo Jo, Ensemble - original cast)

Gosh I have so many amazing memories of Newsies! It was a Broadway debut for half of us! I always loved seeing the small things that the audience wouldn't know about:

· Medda's face as she looked upstage preparing to sing.

· Scaring Kara Lindsay before we'd enter during the first scene or hiding so she'd think she'd have to go on without me.

· The lightning fast quick change I had from Darcy to Jo Jo with my two dressers.

· Trying to make the nuns laugh as I climbed the rail telling them sob stories of why I had nothing to eat.

· The spark and palpable energy felt amongst the group before "Seize the Day."

· Wondering who would be the one to pull their spoons out early during "King of New York" and laugh about it.

· Hanging like monkeys before "Brooklyn's Here" behind the scrim.

...so many things I can't name them all.

What a triumphant and glorious experience it was!! I can't begin to explain the feeling in my heart for this remarkable show and being a part of the original Broadway cast. Newsies forever!!

NEWSIES features a Tony Award-winning 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 Tony nominee Jeff Calhoun and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, who won a 2012 Tony Award for his work.

When it opened on March 29, 2012, Newsies was intended for a Broadway run of just 101 performances. The show's fiercely devoted fans had other ideas, however: they propelled the show to a run that will total 1005 performances, attendance of more than 1 million and a gross of over $100M. At the time of Newsies' closing, only the landmark musical Rent will have played the Nederlander Theatre longer in its 93 year history.

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.

Photo Credit: Deen van Meer