Last night I had a singularly fun experience. And fun is absolutely the word I would use.
I went to go see Disney's Newsies, on Broadway.
20 years ago (chilling) Disney released a little (ha!) movie entitled Newsies. It was a full fledged musical, with new songs by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, who had just received an Oscar for another little movie they wrote some songs for called Beauty and The Beast...maybe you've heard about it. Newsies was directed by a fairly unknown choreographer named Kenny Ortega. It starred Robert Duvall, Anne Margaret, Bill Pullman, and an up and coming Welsh teenager named Christian Bale, as well as a full ensemble of singing, dancing, non threatening hunky teenage boys.
The movie flopped. But Ashman and Menken went on to write Aladdin and Menken several other Disney hits. Ortega later made the High School Musical and Christian Bale...well..
He did OK for himself in the end.
But Newsies never went away. It developed a massive cult following. Seriously, google it. And twenty years later Disney brought it back as a stage musical.
Newsies has lots of flaws. The film has massive horrific flaws. Doesn't make it less wonderful. I love that movie, not despite it's flaws, but because of them. It takes itself far too seriously, there are about seven too many plots, Robert Duvall is absolutely terrible as Joseph Pulitzer. Like, massively awfully terrible. Jack Kelly (Bale) has an awkward, shoehorned in romance with the older sister of his right hand David. Ann-Margaret's entire character, Medda seems to only exist because they wanted Ann-Margaret to be in the movie. Bill Pullman seems unable to stop being Bill Pullman.
They fixed some of these problems for the stage version. Medda becomes Jack's other employer. In addition to being a Newsie, he's an aspiring and very talented artist and he paints back drops for her theater. Sarah (the sister) is excised altogether, as is Brian Denton (Pullman) and both are replaced with Catherine, a plucky Jo March type female reporter who joins forces with the newsies. She's infinitely more compelling and streamlines the plot a little bit.
Now, it's still deeply flawed. A totally unnecessary Act II plot twist complicates Catherine and Jack's relationship, which given that she is clearly meant to be an educated upper class young lady, and he a street kid was probably already complicated enough. David's character is turned into a bit of a wimp, although that may have just been casting, and the supporting newsies, who in the film are colorful and each have distinct and loveable personalities, are pushed to the back to create a more intense interior monologue for Jack. Which translates into about twenty six (hyperbole) reprise's of Jack's character song (musical theatre term!) "Sante Fe."
Spot Conlon, Crutchy and Racetrack still make the cut (though Racetrack's name is shortened to simply "Race") but gone are Kid Blink, Boots, and my favorite Mush. Spot and the Brooklyn newsies do get their own song now though, entitled "Never Fear, Brooklyn's Here!"
There are several new songs, including a duet between Jack and Catherine that is pure beautiful Menken schmaltz. I smiled thinking how good he is at that Act II duet. "Suddenly Seymour," "A Whole New World," and "I See The Light," are perfect examples and "I Believe in You," isn't quite as good as those, but it's perfectly lovely. A new song for Medda is worlds better than her originals, and "The Bottom Line" performed by Pulitzer and is cronies isn't memorable but it does it's job.
The dancing is superb and the energy doesn't stop. And the guys are still totally hunky in that adorable boy bandy way. What impressed me the most is that the musical stands on it's own. Knowing the movie helps, but it's hardly necessary to enjoy the show.
I did wake up this morning and walk to work skipping and humming "Carrying The Banner," and I haven't stopped smiling since the curtain went down. So it definitely did it's job.
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