Adaptations
- A film version of the stage musical was released in 2017, featuring the original Broadway cast and was directed by Jeff Calhoun and Brett Sullivan.
International Productions
- Newsies had a special immersive production in London in 2022 at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre.
Musical Composition
- Newsies: The Musical features music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman.
- The 1992 film 'Newsies' and the stage musical differ significantly, with the musical adding new songs like 'Watch What Happens' and 'Brooklyn's Here', and removing old ones like 'My Lovey Dovey Baby'.
Notable Tours
- 'Newsies Jr.', a one-hour adaptation of the musical for middle school and youth theater productions, was released in 2022, marking it as the 50th title in Music Theatre International's Broadway Junior lineup.
- The North American touring production of 'Newsies' was recorded at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles and made available for digital download on the 25th anniversary of the original film's release.
- Jeremy Jordan, along with several other alumni from the Broadway production of 'Newsies,' reprised their roles for the filmed stage production in Hollywood.
- Music Theatre International released a licensed version of 'Newsies' in 2018, featuring changes from the touring production and promoting it with the 'Seize the Day Challenge' where participating groups competed for free performance rights.
- A song titled 'Letter from the Refuge,' a solo number for Crutchie, was introduced in the national tour of 'Newsies' and has been included in the version of the show now licensed to theatre companies.
- The national tour of Newsies began in 2014 and visited 65 cities across the US and Canada, reaching 784 performances.
Production Facts
- Jack Kelly is based on a real-life newsboy leader from the 1899 strike, primarily modeled after Kid Blink, who is known for his charismatic speaking abilities.
- Governor Theodore Roosevelt is depicted as a supportive figure to the newsies' cause in the musical, a dramatization that enhances his role for theatrical effect.
- The musical concludes with a somewhat fictional resolution where the newsies win their demands, a dramatized depiction differing from the more complicated historical outcome.
- The pivotal rally scene in the musical takes place in Medda Larkin's theatre, a stand-in for the historical New Irving Theatre where the real-life newsboys' union held a massive rally.
- Katherine Plumber, a central character in the musical, is a fictional invention, though her name references Joseph Pulitzer's real-life daughter, who died young.
- Newsies recouped its initial Broadway investment of $5 million in just seven months, marking it the fastest of any Disney musical on Broadway to turn a profit.
- Jeremy Jordan originally starred as Jack Kelly in the Broadway production of Newsies.
- The Broadway debut of Newsies was in 2012 at the Nederlander Theatre and it played for over 1,000 performances.
- Newsies premiered at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey, in 2011 before moving to Broadway.
- The musical is inspired by the real-life Newsboys Strike of 1899 in New York City.
- The book for Newsies: The Musical was written by Harvey Fierstein, adapting from the screenplay by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White.
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