A sensational Dillon Klena and a terrifically talented young cast of singing-dancing newsboys make Moonlight Stage Productions’ Newsies an infectiously entertaining (and unashamedly pro-labor) treat.

 Based on the 1992 flick that helped propel Christian Bale to stardom, Disney’s Newsies combines excitement and romance and song and dance to crowd-pleasing effect, the latter two provided by Alan Menken and Jack Feldman’s eminently hummable Tony-winning score and at Moonlight by Karl Warden’s excitingly athletic choreography.

 Klena ignites the stage as Jack Kelly, the fictional leader of the real-life 1899 New York newsboys’ strike, David to the Goliath represented by newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer (Hank Stratton), whose decision to raise the price his “newsies” must pay before selling their “papes” on the streets of NYC prompts 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 sure-to-be bumpy ride are newbie newsie Davey (Scott Arnold) and his kid brother Les (Noah Baird), working in tandem to support a disabled father; Crutchie (Austyn Myers) so named because of his ever-present walking aid; 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 (Katharine McDonough 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 Larry Raben signals from Newsies’ powerfully played opening scene, a one-on-one in which Jack reveals to Crutchie his dream of leaving New York City squalor and beginning life anew in “Santa Fe,” that the dramatic stakes will be as high as the leaps executed by their fellow newsboys in the show-stopping full-cast “Carrying The Banner” that follows.

 Klena’s youth (at age 19, he’s easily the youngest of the five Jack Kellys I’ve seen) is just one reason his Jack proves a stand-up-and-cheer standout on the Moonlight stage, the Cal State Fullerton junior investing the role with abundant charisma, incendiary force, deeply felt emotion, and song-and-dance chops that promise big things ahead.

 Arnold’s earnest, engaging Davey is the big brother any kid could wish for, and Baird is a feisty charmer as said younger bro. As for Myers, the gifted young triple-threat (who’s grown up doing San Diego theater) not only wins hearts as Crutchie, he matches his crutch-free castmates on the dance floor every step of the way.

 McDonough’s feisty, fabulous Katherine once again proves her one of SoCal’s finest young leading ladies (as if her star turns in All Shook Up and The Music Man hadn’t already made that abundantly clear), Stratton makes Pulitzer far more than just your average everyday money-grubbing, silky-voiced capitalist jerk, and Shirley Johnston turns glamorous nightclub entertainer Medda Larkin into the most luscious Southern belle since Scarlett O’Hara.

 As for the newsboys themselves, Jake Bradford (Albert, Bill Hearst), Gavin Calais (Jo Jo, Darcy), Wes Dameron (Finch), Hanz Enyeart (Elmer), Sky Nathan Frank (Mush), Tyler Fromson (Romeo), Colby Hamann (Race), Danny Hanson (a dynamic Spot Conlon, Tommy Boy), Fisher Kaake (Morris Delancey, Mike), Sean Kiralla (Buttons), Jacob Narcy (Henry), James Odom (Specs), Tristen Ross (Sniper), and Tim Stokel (Oscar Delancey, Ike) perform Warden’s dance move with indefatigable athleticism and grace while vocalizing under the expert musical direction of Randi Ellen Rudolph, who conducts Moonlight’s Broadway-caliber pit orchestra.

Completing the multitalented cast are Greg Bailey (Wiesel, Jacobi, Stage Manager), Gabriella Certo (Bowery Beauty, Nun, Woman, Goon, Newsie), Johnny Fletcher (Seitz, Goon), Shayne Mims (Bunsen), Paul Morgavo (Snyder, Guard), Greg Nicholas (Nunzio, Police, an amusing Teddy Roosevelt), and Erica Marie Weisz (Hannah, Bowery Beauty, Nun), plus a youth ensemble* that distinguishes this production from those I’ve seen before by reminding audiences just how young these exploited child laborers were before unionization gave them power and voice.

Scenic designer David McQuillen Robertson of Fourth Wall Scenic, Maine State Music Theatre Costume Rentals (coordinated and executed by Carlotta Malone and Crystel Burden), and Jonathan Infante’s atmosphere-enhancing projection and scenic design effectively evoke a rich-man-poor-man’s 1890s New York strikingly lit by Jennifer Edwards, with Kevin Williams and Bonnie Durben’s properties completing the visual mix and sound designer Jim Zadai ensuring an expert vocal-instrumental mix.

Brooke Baldwin is stage manager and Lauren Hicks is assistant stage manager. Hansen is assistant to the choreographer.

 Disney’s Newsies once again proves Moonlight Stage Productions unparalleled in musical theater under the stars. Add to that a pro-union message that seems positively radical in these increasingly anti-labor times and you’ve got a show that packs particular political punch while delivering the family entertainment goods in spades.

*Nick Aiello, Sean Barnett, Josh Bradford, Hayden Luedde, Piatt Carpenter Pund, Tori Hitchcock, Madison O’Donovan, Claire Scheper, Cassidy Ann Smith, and Catalina Jewell Zelles

Moonlight Amphitheatre, 1200 Vale Terrace Drive, Vista.
www.moonlightstage.com

–Steven Stanley
July 22, 2018
Photos: Ken Jacques, Adriana Zuniga

Tags: Alan Menken, Harvey Fierstein, Jack Feldman, Moonlight Stage Productions, San Diego County Theater Review