First there was a 1992 Disney film with Christian Bale and Robert Duval, which bombed. Then a spectacular Broadway stage version, which played over 1000 performances and starred the huge talent of Jeremy Jordan. And now we get to see a filmed version of that stage show.
Newsies is based loosely on the real-life 1899 strike of newspaper vendors – all young children – in New York. Like all good Disney stuff, the hero is dashing, handsome and gets the girl. Like all good Disney stuff the villain is cunning, funny and gets his come-uppance.
That wouldn’t be enough to make this memorable, but create fantastic dance routines for the young unknown ensemble, and you got a palpable hit for creators Alan Menken , Jack Feldman and the stellar Harvey Feirstein, who wrote the book.
Apart from the dancers- and I’ll come back to them – director JeffCalhoun gets stand-out performances from Jeremy Jordan ( a key part of the TV hit Smash ) as the troubled but driven young strike leader Jack Kelly and Kara Lindsay is a pleasing, feisty girl reporter – the problem comes when she sings. For me she has that modern kind of high-pitched tight voice that Disney management love, and this giggly, hooting, whistling audience clearly love her to bits.
Steve Blanchard is fabulous as the evil newspaper tycoon Joseph Pulitzer , only lacking a moustache-twirling moment to make him a true cartoon villain.
But the show belongs to its epic set of moving gantries and multi-levels – which also get hooting approval from the audience. Designers Tobin Ost and Sven Ortel rightly won one of the show’s pile of Tony’s
And the dancing? Choreographer Christopher Gattelli pulls out all the stops. It’s just stunning – such high leaps, ballet turns and tap – even a very tricky routine where each boy dances on two sheets of newspaper.
Memorable tunes ? No, not really but Jordan pulls off the angst with great aplomb and shows true star quality.
Newsies is on Disney+
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