NEWSIES Opens Tonight!

NEWSIES, opens officially tonight at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre (208 W 41st St) for a strictly limited run following its critically-hailed stint at Paper Mill Playhouse last fall.

The Disney musical, featuring music by eight-time Academy Award® winner Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Sister Act), lyrics by Jack Feldman and a book by four-time Tony® Award winner Harvey Fierstein (La Cage aux Folles, Torch Song Trilogy), will play its opening night on March 29; the final performance is scheduled for June 10th. Newsies, produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, is directed by Tony nominee Jeff Calhoun (Big River revival) and choreographed by Tony nominee Christopher Gattelli (South Pacific revival).

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 Broadway company of Newsies will feature Jeremy Jordan (Bonnie & Clyde) as Jack Kelly, John Dossett (2003 revival of Gypsy) as Joseph Pulitzer, Kara Lindsay (Little House on the Prairie) as Katherine Plumber, Capathia Jenkins (Caroline, or Change) as Medda, Ben Fankhauser (Spring Awakening national tour) as Davey, Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Mary Poppins) as Crutchie, and Lewis Grosso (Mary Poppins), and Matthew Schechter (Elf) alternating the role of Les. Jordan, Dossett, Lindsay, Fankhauser and Keenan-Bolger will all reprise the roles they created in the Paper Mill Playhouse production last fall.

The ensemble of Newsies will feature Aaron J. Albano, Mark Aldrich, Tommy Bracco, John E. Brady, Ryan Breslin, Kevin Carolan, Caitlyn Caughell, Kyle Coffman, Mike Faist, Michael Fatica, Julie Foldesi, Garett Hawe, Thayne Jasperson, Evan Kasprzak, Jess Le Protto, Stuart Marland, Andy Richardson, Jack Scott, Ryan Steele, Brendon Stimson, Nick Sullivan, Ephraim Sykes, Laurie Veldheer, Alex Wong and Stuart Zagnit.

Tickets are available for purchase through NewsiesTheMusical.com, by calling Ticketmaster's Disney on Broadway hotline at 866-870-2717, or in person at the Nederlander Theatre box office (208 W. 41st Street). The Nederlander Theatre box office will be open Monday through Saturday 10:00am - 8:00pm through March 11th. Beginning March 12th box office hours will be Monday through Saturday 10:00am - 8:00pm and Sunday 11:00am - 7:00pm.

Look out for our review roundup tomorrow!