DISNEY'S NEWSIES Musical in 2 acts based on the 1992 film of the same name. Lyrics: Jack Feldman; Music: Alan Menken; Book: Harvey Fierstein Nederlander Theatre, Broadway - 29th March, 2012 (Previews: 16) : Performances: 291 as at 9th December, 2012 SYNOPSIS Based on the 1992 Disney film, Newsies is the tale of newsboy Jack Kelly, who dreams of a better life far from the hardship of the streets. When Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise distribution prices, Jack finds a cause to fight for and rallies his army of newsies to strike. STORY Act I In July 1899, a group of orphaned and homeless newsboys live in a Lower Manhattan lodging house with their informal leader, seventeen-year-old Jack Kelly. In the early hours of the morning, Jack tells his best friend, Crutchie, of his dream to one day leave New York for a better life out West (“Santa Fe (Prologue)”). As the sun rises, the rest of the newsies awaken and prepare for a day on the job, finding as much joy as they can in their life of poverty (“Carrying the Banner”). At the circulation gate, Jack meets a new newsboy named Davey and his nine-year-old brother Les. Unlike the other newsies, the brothers have a home and a loving family, and have been pulled out of school only temporarily to support their parents while their father is out of work with an injury. Seeing young Les as an opportunity to sell more papers, Jack offers to be their partner. Meanwhile, the publisher of the New York World, Joseph Pulitzer, expresses his displeasure at his newspaper’s declining circulation. To increase his profits, he decides to increase the cost of the papers for the newsies, ignoring an employee’s concerns that “it’s going to be awfully rough on those children” (“The Bottom Line”). Later, Jack, Davey, and Les are selling their final newspapers of the day when the corrupt Warden Snyder of the Refuge, a juvenile detention centre, recognizes Jack as an escapee from his institution. He attempts to chase the boys down, but they find cover in a vaudeville-style theatre owned by Jack’s friend Medda Larkin, whom he regularly paints backdrops for. As Medda performs (“That’s Rich”), Jack spots a young female reporter named Katherine Plumber. She rebuffs Jack’s attempts to flirt with her, but she is then charmed when he leaves her with a sketch of her portrait (“Don’t Come A-Knocking/I Never Planned on You”). The next morning, the newsies discover that the cost of newspapers has been raised to sixty cents per hundred. Outraged, Jack declares the newsies to be a union and organizes a protest (“The World Will Know”). Katherine decides to cover the strike, seeing it as an opportunity to be taken more seriously as a journalist (“Watch What Happens”). The next day, the boys have informed the rest of the city’s newsies about the strike, but each neighbourhood claims that they will only join once Spot Conlon, leader of the Brooklyn newsies, gives the okay. The newsies are discouraged by the lack of support, but Davey convinces them to protest regardless of who shows (“Seize the Day”). Scabs arrive to take the newsies’ jobs, but are persuaded to join the strike by Jack, who delivers an impassioned speech condemning child labour and the city’s treatment of the poor. The protest appears to be headed for success but is soon cut short when Pulitzer’s goon squad and the police arrive to break it up by force. During the ensuing fight, Crutchie is apprehended, badly beaten, and taken to the Refuge. A devastated Jack escapes to the lodging house rooftop and, blaming himself for the protest’s failure, fantasizes about running away forever (“Santa Fe”). Act II The next morning, Katherine finds the battered and bruised newsies in Jacobi’s Deli, only to learn that no one knows where Jack is as rumours circulate about his whereabouts. She cheers the other newsies up by showing
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