Newsies - The One without Christian Bale

Newsies

Music by Alan Menken, Lyrics by Jack Feldman, Book by Harvey Fierstein

Based on the film written by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White

Nederlander Theatre, New York, NY

October 18, 2013

Let's be honest: if you didn't like the 1992 film Newsies starring Christian Bale, Bill Pullman, Robert Duvall, and Ann-Margret, you're not going to like the stage version, either. But if that's true, we're probably not friends and you're likely not reading this. 

Waiting to get into the theatre tonight, I was singing arguably the worst song in the film: "High Times, Hard Times." I knew this song didn't make the cut for the stage version, but it was the one stubbornly stuck in my head while waiting for the show to begin. The replacement version, "That's Rich", is arguably better, but the best songs in the show are some of those that were originally in the film. Making Joseph Pulitzer a singing character was a good choice, but turning him occasionally silly is unnecessary at best. 

Of all the noticeable changes, the morphing of the reporter character (played by Bill Pullman in the film) and the love interest into one person - who is also Pulitzer's daughter - was wholly artificial. I understand the need in theatre to cut the casting down to the bare essentials, but this change didn't read well. Since the conflict inherent in Pulitzer's daughter being involved with the strike leader is never fully developed or discussed with Pulitzer, her character change was unnecessary. The script speaks of the children's crusade and the need for the newsies to speak for all exploited child workers, and it speaks of the support of all those other child workers, but we never see anyone besides the newsies themselves. Wouldn't this have been a logical place to incorporate her (and more female characters)? 

From the purely selfish perspective of a high school theatre director, I wish the stage version had found ways to incorporate more women. This production has a cast of 28, large by Broadway standards. Four of the twenty-eight are women, with three of the women playing two roles. This is not viable for my students, even if I just cast some of the newsies as girls. In a show that high school kids go crazy for (and they were the main demographic in the audience tonight), this is disappointing.

 (I went back for a better marquee pic)

As my friend Beth has pointed out, there is no counting the number of times we watched this movie in high school. As a fan of the film, the stage version does not disappoint. The singing was strong, the choreography exciting, and the familiar songs lit up the audience. There are a few self-serving script changes I would make, but they didn't diminish an enjoyable evening of musical theatre.