Review: Extra! Extra! NEWSIES is a Hit!

I don't remember enjoying a show this much since PIPPIN came to Omaha! Disney's NEWSIES, the record-breaking smash musical with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Jack Feldman, and book by Harvey Fierstein opened last night at the Orpheum Theater. There was no doubt as to whether the audience enjoyed it. They erupted into cheers, whistles, and applause after, and sometimes in the middle of, each number.

The story is based on real life newsboys in 1899 who go on strike when Pulitzer raises the price of papers. Led by Jack Kelly (Kid Blink in history), the newsboys band together in the streets of New York City and refuse to buy and sell papers. They declare themselves a union and recruit fellow newsboys from neighboring districts such as Queens, Bronx, and dreaded Brooklyn, and take on the established news tycoons. Coinciding with the theme of child labor reform is orphanage reform. Jack is an artist who draws pictures of his life in the Refuge, a home for orphaned kids who live with mistreatment, hunger, and rats.

There is nothing like a group of young men singing in harmony to stir the soul. The voices are so good! Joey Barreiro (Jack Kelly), Zachary Sayle (Crutchie), and Stephen Michael Langton (Davey) sing with uncommon expression and such beautiful tone. "Santa Fe" makes your throat ache. The "girlsies" and the "oldies" are also wonderful singers. Aisha de Haas (Medda Larkin) is a crowd pleaser with her comic rendition of "That's Rich."

Chris Gattelli, choreographer for NEWSIES, won a Tony Award for choreography for good reason. There are flips and cartwheels and some pretty impressive gymnastic feats. One dancer, Jordan Samuels ("Specs") draws gasps and thunderous applause for his acrobatics.

The dancing is clearly the strongest draw of the show, but there is another element that is so important. Personality. There are incredible personalities in this show. The acting is so fine, that we are drawn to each character as if they are our own friends. The people are natural, and funny, and just plain real. The interaction between Jack Kelly and Katherine (Morgan Keene) is witty repartee, eliciting cries of "yes!" and hoots from the audience.

The set is amazing. It consists of three columns of platforms that look as if they were made from an Erector Set. They spin and move and change with screens that roll up and down. With clotheslines lifting up and coming down, the entire effect is one of multiple layers that gives the impression of 3D popups in a book.

I can't say enough for NEWSIES. It is a glorious fun; a big smash of a production. Don't just read all about it! Seize the opportunity and go see it.

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