“Newsies: The Musical” Lacks for Substance, Spectacle, and Good Songs

By Greggory Moore, Columnist

In 1992, Walt Disney Pictures released Newsies, a musical loosely based on the 1899 strike of New York newsboys that compelled publishing magnates Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst, et al. to offer better terms for the distribution of their newspapers. 

Everyone hated the film, so it seemed a dubious source for a Broadway musical. Nonetheless, 20 years later Newsies: The Musical got eight Tony noms and two wins, including Best Original Score (never mind that almost every song was from the film). 

I can only imagine how bad the film is if the musical is a step up, because, despite a spirited production by Musical Theatre West, the music is so uninspired and the book so slight that I have no idea what the fuss was about.

Like most newsies, Jack (Dillon Klena) is a street urchin who scrapes by selling the papers while avoiding the clutches of the evil Warden Snyder (David Kirk Grant), head of a juvenile detention center called the Refuge. Jack’s got dreams of ditching NYC for (for reasons I must have missed) of Santa Fe, NM, which sounds swell to his best pal Crutchie (Tom Avery). Meanwhile across town, the greedy Pulitzer (David Engel) gets a hard-on over the idea of how his bottom line will swell if he and his publishing cohort raise the price of newspapers by 0.1%. But that’s a big deal when you don’t have a pot to piss in, and Jack’ll be damned if he’ll just roll over and take it. Fortunately, newbie newsie Davey (Jaylen Baham) is the brainy type, and he puts the concept of unionization in Jack’s ear. Fortunately (yes, again), Jack has recently made the acquaintance of entertainment reporter Katherine (Monika Peña), who’s looking for a scoop as a way to break into covering hard news.

What happens from there is not only predictable, but writer Harvey Fierstein goes again and again for the mawkish and corny — shortcomings that are magnified by the hammy way in which director Jeffry Denman handles the material. To be fair, I’m not sure there’s another way to handle it. Maybe we could do without all the stereotypical accents? Do they really need all that “poisunality”?

Denman’s choreography also comes up short. His very young cast is not filled with strong dancers, which may be why we get so many unconnected ballet moves and generic fist-pumping in place of real kinetic excitement. But Taven Blanke (as Race) is a notable exception, and Denman knows it, giving Blanke all the most acrobatic bits. And there’s no faulting even the weakest dancers for lack of spirit. The closest thing to a standout number is “Seize the Day”, which closes Act 1 (not counting a brief coda) with a fine climax and somewhat clever tableau.

Musically, the blame that not a single song sticks to the ears lies squarely with composer Alan Menken. The best of this underwhelming bunch is the wordy “Watch What Happens”, which Monika Peña makes work as well as it can. Otherwise, everybody sings fine, a vocal high point being Jaylen Baham’s clarion tones in “Letter from the Refuge”. But such moments are buried in a landslide of reprises of music that doesn’t get any better the second time you hear it, never mind the third, or the fourth, or….

As usual, there’s no faulting Musical Theatre West mise en scène. Kevin Clowes’s sets are simple and highly pragmatic, and Denman gets plenty of mileage out of a couple of stairwells on wheels.

The most interesting thing about Newsies is the true-life story that inspired it. Perhaps pairing such bantamweight artistry with substantive events is part of the problem. Maybe an Oklahoma!-like plot would be a better fit. Then again, the songcraft of Oklahoma! is (on a ten-rung scale) about six rungs higher than that of Newsies (and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t feel Rodgers & Hammerstein are some sort of Lennon/McCartney — or even a Kander & Ebb).

It seems that the official title is not just Newsies: The Musical, but Disney’s Newsies: The Musical. Indeed, gives you a more complete idea of what you get.

Newsies: The Musical at Musical Theatre West
Times: Fri 8pm, Sat 2pm & 8pm, Sun 1pm, plus Jul 18 7:30pm & Jul 21 6pm
The show runs through July 28.
Cost: $15–$125
Details: (562) 856-1999, musical.org
Venue: Carpenter Performing Arts Center (6200 W. Atherton, Long Beach)