3-D Theatricals is back in business doing what it does best, treating audiences of all ages to Broadway-caliber productions like Newsies The Musical, now wowing audiences at the Cerritos Center For The Performing Arts.

Adapted from the 1992 Disney flick of the same name, the crowd-pleasing 2012 Tony winner 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.

Dillon Klena reprises his Breakout Performance Scenie-winning star turn as Jack Kelly, David to the Goliath of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer (Norman Large), 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 (Kyle Frattini), so named because of his ever-present walking aid; newbie newsie Davey (Rod Bagheri) and his kid brother Les (Colton Dorfman), working in tandem to support a disabled father; and a ragtag team of scrappy lads (and a lass) 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 (Allison Sheppard 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.

T.J. Dawson directs for 3-D with visual flair and attention to detail, eliciting one showstopping performance after another, beginning with the charisma-blessed Klena, as vocally gifted a singer as he is a dramatic powerhouse, all of which come together in a “Sante Fe” that ends Act One with a emotion-packed bang.

Supporting performances are uniformly headline-worthy, beginning with Sheppard’s fabulously feisty Katharine, who sings “Watch What Happens” with such awareness of what’s being thought and felt that it feels brand now.

Large adds real depth to what in less adept hands might be nothing more than a cardboard villain, Bagheri makes for the most charming of Daveys, Dorfman is a scrappy delight as Les, Frattini wins hearts like nobody’s business as Crutchie, and Compere makes for a simply luscious Medda, with pipes to match.

Character roles are performed with amusing quirks by Ryan Addison (Seitz), Candice Rochelle Berge (Bunsen), Allen Everman (Nunzio, Governor Roosevelt), James Everts (Oscar Delancey), David Kirk Grant (Wiesel, Mr. Jacobi, Mayor), Anthony Klinner (Morris Delancey), Anneke May (Hannah, Nun), Ariel Silvana Murillo, and Paul Zelhart (Snyder).

Still, if there’s any reason why Newsies keeps audiences coming back for more (including this reviewer, who’s seen seven different productions so far), it’s the show’s spectacular choreography, leaps and spins and somersaults and grand jetés that can only be mastered by the most gifted of dancers, and here too 3-D delivers in spades.

Christopher Christopher Gattelli won a Tony for the Broadway original before going on to choreograph the show’s First National Tour, which featured Chaz Wolcott as Scab.

Wolcott assumes choreographic duties for 3-D, and sensationally so, aided and abetted by fifteen of the most awesome and tireless dancers in town: Lucas Blankenhorn (Albert), Rorey Chavarria (Specs), Louis Reyes Chavez (Henry), Jeff Garrido (Elmer), Callum Gugger (Hot Shot), Brandon Taylor Jones (Finch), Philly Kang (Romeo), dance captain Jonathan Kim (Buttons), Ryan Marks (Race), Daniel Peters (Smalls, Scab 1), Matthew Ryan (Willie), Ian Schmoke (Jo Jo) D.J. Smith (Mush, Bill), Scott Spraags (Kid Blink, Darcy), Jenna Stocks (Nun, Tommy Boy, Scab 2), and Rico Velazquez (Spot Conlan).

Vocal performances are all-around splendid too, credit shared by vocal director Crystal Barron, with musical director extraordinaire Julie Lamoureux conducting a tiptop orchestra down in the pit.

3-D has rented Music Theatre of Wichita’ sets and costumes (the former designed by Bruce Brockman, the latter by Dixon Reynolds), with local designers Jean-Yves Tessier (lighting), Julie Ferrin (sound), Andrew Nagy (projections), Peter Herman (hair, wigs, and makeup), and Gretchen Morales and Melanie Cavaness (props) adding their own expertise to a production design that would do any major regional theater proud.

Leslie Stevens is associate director/choreographer. Brooklyn Vizcarra is assistant to the director. Michael Polak is fight coordinator. Caitlin Muelder is dialect coach.

Casting is by Amber J. Snead and Lindsay Brooks. Talia Krispel is production stage manager and Julian Oliva is assistant stage manager. Terry Hanrahan is production manager. David Elzer is publicist.

Though just about any Newsies is guaranteed to bring out the crowds, it takes bona fide triple-threats to give audiences the production this musical needs and deserves. The superstars on stage at the Cerritos Center For The Performing Arts make 3-D Theatricals’ Newsies take off and soar.

Cerritos Center For The Performing Arts, 12700 Center Ct Dr S, Cerritos.
www.3dtshows.org

–Steven Stanley
May 14, 2022
Photos: CaughtInTheMoment.com

Tags: 3-D Theatricals, Alan Menken, Cerritos Center For The Performing Arts, Harvey Fierstein, Jack Feldman, Los Angeles Theater Review