Review: NEWSIES at SHEA'S BUFFALO

MAGNIFICENT DANCING TO MEDIOCRE SCORE

Disney's Theatrical Productions high energy stage version of the 1992 film NEWSIES opened last night at Shea's after a tryout at New Jersey's PAPERMILL PLAYHOUSE and subsequent Broadway run. Based on the Disney film, Harvey Fierstein's book delineates the struggle in 1899 of a group of newsboys who strike against the powerful newspaper magnates of New York, led by Joseph Pulitzer.

Directed by Jeff Calhoun, this slick National Tour has high production values, including a giant 3 tower set by Tobin Ost that rotates and slides around the stage to become various stairways and living quarters, and closes off with screens to have effective projections (by Sven Ortel) displayed upon them.

The large cast is made up of one of the best young male ensembles you will ever find. These lads make up a rag-tag group on orphans and kids of down-on-their-luck parents who scrape together pennies and dimes to deliver the daily papers in the New York city boroughs. Dances are by Christopher Gattelli , who won the 2012 TONY Award for his work, put these boys through their paces and offer amazingly acrobatic choreography, blended with high flying ballet moves. The young men all appear to be classically trained, as evidenced by the multiple dance forms employed by Gattelli. I never expected a tap number from this bunch, and these boys executed it brilliantly in the ACT 2 opener, "King of New York." The dance arrangements by Mark Hummel were exciting and propelled the dances along.

If only the music by Alan Menken with lyrics by Jack Feldman was as exciting as the dancing. This mostly forgettable score, full of it's nondescript power ballads and anthems of poverty, was often filled with cumbersome lyrics that passed by so quickly as to be unintelligible. Even the music relegated to the adults to further the plot appeared to have little musical structure, causing them to be more stream of thought and ambling without distinction. "That's Rich" sung by Medda, a Mae West inspired character, came off as tepid instead of being a showstopper of a baudy vaudeville number. No fault of Angela Grovey,whose buxsome figure and strong voice should have been given a better song.

Dan DeLuca played the ringleader of the newsboys, Jack Kelly. DeLuca was amiable enough in his scenes, displaying appropriate rough edges, as the artistic orphan boy who longs for a better life in Santa Fe. Unfortunately his singing voice was small and nasally, failing to bloom during his exclamatory passages. Luckily his dancing was on par with the rest of the male ensemble. The secondary male characters fared much better. Zachary Sayle was Crutchie, the near lame boy who tugged on everyone's heartstrings. Sayle's wide grin was endearing and his letter scene in the Refuge was perfect, with a touching and amusing new song composed for this tour. Jacob Kemp, as the new boy Davey, displayed a legit full singing voice that sailed over the orchestra , while Jonathan Fenton was adorable as his conniving younger brother Les.

Jack's love interest, the girl reporter (played by Stephanie Styles), added some feminine wiles to the large male ensemble. Styles struck a nice balance between go get 'em reporter and lovestruck female. Her assistance on how to solve the newsies plight proved a great plot twist. A cameo by the character of Teddy Rooselt (played by Kevin Carolan) lent some good humor to the political nature of government corruption and big business during this period.

The infectious energy of the dance numbers in NEWSIES make this tour shine, and credit needs to be given to each member of the boys ensemble for their strong dance skills, with each of them being able to develop individual characters through detailed direction by Calhoun.

NEWSIES, part of the M&T Bank 2015-16 Broadway Series, is at Shea's from September 29 through October 4, for an exclusive 8-show premiere engagement.

For tickets ($35-$85), call 1-800-745-3000, go to www.ticketmaster.com or the Shea's Box Office, 650 Main St., Buffalo. Student tickets are available for all performances for $25 with Student ID at the Shea's Box Office within two hours of showtime. For more information, please visit sheas.org.

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