Disney's NEWSIES Opens Tonight at PPAC

The Providence premiere of Disney's NEWSIES opens tonight, October 20, at 7P at the Providence Performing Arts Center for a limited engagement through Sunday, October 25. In Providence, NEWSIES will play Tuesday and Wednesday at 7P, Thursday and Friday at 7:30P, Saturday at 2P and 8P, and Sunday at 1P and 6:30P. NEWSIES is part of the Taco/White Family Foundation Broadway Series.

Single tickets are available at the PPAC Box Office (220 Weybosset Street in downtown Providence), by phone at (401) 421-ARTS (2787), and online at www.ppacri.org. Group orders of 15 or more may be placed by calling Paul Hiatt at or (401) 574-3162, or phiatt@ppacri.org. Tickets are $83 - $26; all ticket prices include a $3 per ticket restoration charge and are subject to change without notice.

The production features Joey Barreiro as "Jack Kelly", Steve Blanchard as "Joseph Pulitzer", Morgan Keene as "Katherine", Aisha de Haas as "Medda Larkin", Stephen Michael Langton as "Davey", Zachary Sayle as "Crutchie", and John Michael Pitera and Ethan Steiner alternating the role of "Les."

Rounding out the cast are Josh Assor, Evan Autio, Bill Bateman, Josh Burrage, Kevin Carolan, Benjamin Cook, DeMarius Copes, Nico DeJesus, JP Ferreri, Sky Flaherty, Kaitlyn Frank, Michael Gorman, David Guzman, Jeff Heimbrock, Stephen Hernandez, Meredith Inglesby, James Judy, Eric Scott Kincaid, Eric Jon Mahlum, Nicholas Masson, Alex Prakken, Michael Ryan, Jordan Samuels, Melissa Steadman Hart, Andrew Wilson and Chaz Wolcott.

NEWSIES, the new American musical, features a Tony Award-winning score with music by eight-time Academy Award winner Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman, a book by four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein and is 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. The entire creative team has reunited to bring the break-out smash musical to audiences across North America.

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 of 1005 performances, attendance of more than 1 million and a gross of over $100M.

While on Broadway, NEWSIES set and broke seven Nederlander Theatre house records and became the highest-grossing show from the 2011-12 Broadway season. The show received 23 major theatrical nominations - including eight Tony Award nods - and won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Score and Choreography.

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 stage version introduces seven brand-new songs by the original team of Menken and Feldman, including a song written specifically for the tour called 'Letter from the Refuge,' while keeping many of the beloved songs from the film, including 'Carrying the Banner, 'Seize the Day,' 'King of New York' and 'Santa Fe.'

Since the film's 1992 theatrical release and subsequent DVD release, NEWSIES has grown into a cult phenomenon, and for years had been the single most requested title of all the Disney musical films not yet adapted for the stage. (The film featured a screenplay by Bob Tzudiker & Noni White (Tarzan, 102 Dalmatians).)

For more information, visit NewsiesTheMusical.com, Facebook.com/Newsies and Twitter.com/Newsies.

The Providence engagement of NEWSIES is presented by arrangement with The Providence Performing Arts Center and is a subscription offering of the Taco/The White Family Foundation Broadway Series.

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