1899 newsboys on strike give 2018 audiences abundant reason to stand up and cheer La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts and McCoy Rigby Entertainment’s Broadway-caliber staging of Disney’s Newsies The Musical.

Adapted from the cult-favorite 1992 Disney flick of the same name, the crowd-pleasing 2012 Broadway hit serves up abundant history-based excitement and romance, along with song and dance provided by Alan Menken and Jack Feldman’s eminently hummable Tony-winning score and some of the most athletic, balletic, taptastic footwork of any 21st-century musical so far.

Alex Prakken of the show’s First National Tour stars as Jack Kelly, David to the Goliath of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, whose decision to raise the price his “newsies” must pay before selling their “papes” on the streets of NYC propels Jack and his fellow paper boys to “Seize The Day” and launch a full-fledged strike against the publishing magnate’s New York World.

 Along with Jack for the bumpy ride are Crutchie (Austyn Myers), so named because of his ever-present walking aid; newbie newsie Davey (Josey Montana McCoy) and his kid brother Les (Travis Burnett), working in tandem to support a disabled father; and a ragtag team of scrappy lads who aren’t about to say no to anyone, not even to the country’s most powerful newspaper kingpin.

 Harvey Fierstein’s Tony-nominated book takes what worked best in Bob Tzudiker and Noni White’s original screenplay and tweaks it by making its leading lady (Beth Stafford Laird as Katherine Plumber) not just Jack’s love interest but the reporter assigned to write about the strike, at the same time keeping the movie’s best songs intact, most notably “Carrying The Banner,” “Santa Fe,” “Seize The Day,” and “The King Of New York,” while factoring in enough new tunes to earn composer Menken his very first Tony statuette.

Director-choreographer Richard J. Hinds’ experience as associate director of Newsies’ original Broadway production makes him the ideal successor to its Tony-nominated director Jeff Calhoun and its Tony-winning choreographer Christopher Gattelli, bringing to La Mirada not only a Newsies vet’s backwards-and-forwards knowledge of the material and attention to its spectacle and dance but a potent awareness of the dramatic stakes faced by have-nots battling haves with neither side likely to give up any time soon.

 Aiding Hinds every step of the way is Prakken’s dynamic star turn as Jack, one that not only has the 2015 University Of Michigan grad commanding the stage with charisma and vocal chops but acing the role’s dramatic demands with equal punch, and never more so than in an Act One-closing “Santa Fe” that is as gut-wrenching as it is gorgeous.

 Laird is pure perfection as Katherine, as lovely as she is spunky and a terrific singer-dancer to boot; local favorites McCoy and Burnett are irrepressible charmers as older-younger-bro team Davey and Les, and Myers touches heartstrings with his indomitably spirited Crutchie.

 Scenie-winning 2016-2017 Musical Theater Star Of The Year Daebreon Poiema is sultry and sassy and silver-throated as glamorous nightclub entertainer Medda Larkin; and Tatiana Monique Alvarez (Hannah, Bowery Beauty, Nun) and Katie Perry (Bowery Beauty, Nun, Katherine understudy) provide engaging distaff support.

 Doug Carfrae (Wiesel, Stage Manager, Mr. Jacobi, Mayor), Steve Gagliastro (Bunsen), fight captain Marc Ginsburg (Seitz, Snyder), John Massey (Nunzio, Governor Roosevelt), and above all Broadway’s velvet-voiced Paul Schoeffler (a redoubtable Joseph Pulitzer) do the show’s older characters proud.

 Still, there couldn’t be Newsies without its title characters and Steven Adam Agdeppa (Albert, Scab), Zach Bez (Elmer), Michael Brian (Splasher and a standout Spot Conlon), Patrick Thomas Cragin (Morris Delancey), Kyle Goleman (Finch, Bill), Jesse Graham (Buttons, Scab), Michael James (a feisty Race), Brandon Halvorsen (Specs), Andre Darnell Myers (Romeo), Nate Odell (Sniper), Tanner Richins (JoJo), Samuel Shea (Mush, Darcy), David Smith (Tommy Boy), dance captain Vinnie Smith (Henry, Scab), and Chris Villain (Oscar Delancey) deliver the nonstop song-and-dance goods in production number after production number while creating clearly defined characters each and every one.

 Scenic designer David McQuillen Robertson and Maine State Music Theatre Costume Rentals effectively evoke a rich-man-poor-man’s 1890s New York strikingly lit by Steven Young, with EH Bohks’ hair, wigs, and makeup and Kevin Williams’ properties completing the visual mix, and Michael Polak scoring points for fight choreography that melds seamlessly with dance.

Newsies sounds terrific too thanks to musical director Brent Crayon, a pitch-perfect pit orchestra, and Josh Bessom’s expert sound design mix.

Anthony Raimondi is associate director/choreographer.

Casting is by Julia Flores. Michael Roman is technical director. Jill Gold is production stage manager and Lisa Palmire is assistant stage manager.

 Few musicals offer the excitement, romance, suspense, and heart of Disney’s Newsies, and equally few are the theaters that can stage it as it should be staged, with star-quality leads and triple-threat newsboys to match Broadway’s best. La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts and McCoy Rigby Entertainment prove themselves more than up to Newsies multiple challenges, bringing their 2017-2018 season to one rip-roaring, crowd-pleasing, standing ovation-earning finish.

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Boulevard, La Mirada.
www.lamiradatheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
June 2, 2018
Photos: Jason Niedle

Tags: Alan Menken, Harvey Fierstein, Jack Feldman, La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts, McCoy Rigby Entertainment