Alright - so the first night back from my trip what did I do?? My mom and I headed over to Papermill Playhouse which is a really high end community theater in NJ. They usually have really great productions because they get a lot of actors from Broadway in NYC who take a break and do a show for a couple months out there.
Anyways, they were starting to get a lot of hype for their rendition of Newsies. Now to be clear, when Alan Menken speaks of a cult following, he is talking about me. I know all the words, my friends and I learned the dance to Seize the Day and it sparked a love for Christian Bale that has never died. So I was a little excited to see it. Here is a clip from the show that they performed on The View (Warning: do not try and sing along to Seize the Day or Santa Fe because they changed some of the lyrics/ also this is the clearest version of the video I could find but it takes a minute to load)
So here is my review. I liked it. If I saw it enough I would probably get over the lyric changes and learn how to sing along to the new lyrics. That being said - I have been dying for this to be made a stage production and it didn't disappoint. Now if we could get Disney money to back this on Broadway I think it would be fantastic. The dancing as you can tell in the clip is ridiculous and they definitely got the harmonizing genius that is Newsies. Also, Jack had a pretty great swagger which he definitely needs. My only disappointment was Davey...he just wasn't a great casting choice. He needed to be more appealing and less nerdy.
As for story line changes - they changed Denton (Bill Pullman's character) into a girl who is trying to be a reporter in a man's vocation which is why she is willing to write something on the strike. Of course she is the one who turns out to be Jack's love interest. The actress they got to play her was great. She reminded me of Sutton Foster which is high praise since Sutton has won three Tony awards.
Hopefully it is popular enough in its two month run that Broadway will decided to give it a stage and I can go see it a couple more times and when you all come to visit you can see it too!
Anyways, they were starting to get a lot of hype for their rendition of Newsies. Now to be clear, when Alan Menken speaks of a cult following, he is talking about me. I know all the words, my friends and I learned the dance to Seize the Day and it sparked a love for Christian Bale that has never died. So I was a little excited to see it. Here is a clip from the show that they performed on The View (Warning: do not try and sing along to Seize the Day or Santa Fe because they changed some of the lyrics/ also this is the clearest version of the video I could find but it takes a minute to load)
So here is my review. I liked it. If I saw it enough I would probably get over the lyric changes and learn how to sing along to the new lyrics. That being said - I have been dying for this to be made a stage production and it didn't disappoint. Now if we could get Disney money to back this on Broadway I think it would be fantastic. The dancing as you can tell in the clip is ridiculous and they definitely got the harmonizing genius that is Newsies. Also, Jack had a pretty great swagger which he definitely needs. My only disappointment was Davey...he just wasn't a great casting choice. He needed to be more appealing and less nerdy.
As for story line changes - they changed Denton (Bill Pullman's character) into a girl who is trying to be a reporter in a man's vocation which is why she is willing to write something on the strike. Of course she is the one who turns out to be Jack's love interest. The actress they got to play her was great. She reminded me of Sutton Foster which is high praise since Sutton has won three Tony awards.
Hopefully it is popular enough in its two month run that Broadway will decided to give it a stage and I can go see it a couple more times and when you all come to visit you can see it too!
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