NEWSIES


With Dillon Klena reprising his signature role to sensational effect and director-choreographer Jeffry Denman giving the production a fresh new look and feel, Musical Theatre West treats audiences to one of the best Newsies ever.

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 electrifying footwork of any 21st-century musical so far.

Klena stars as Jack Kelly, David to the Goliath of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer (David Engel), 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 sellers 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 (Tom Avery), so named because of his ever-present walking aid; newbie newsie Davey (Jaylen Baham) and his kid brother Les (Colton Jackson Hutzler), working in tandem to support a disabled father; a lovely young New York Sun reporter by the nom-de-plume of Katherine Plumber (Monika Peña); bodacious Bowery chanteuse Medda Larkin (Dominique Kent); 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 just enough to make Newsies The Musical its own entity, one that both keeps the movie’s best songs intact, most notably “Carrying The Banner,” “Santa Fe,” “Seize The Day,” and “The King Of New York,” and adds enough terrific new tunes (“Watch What Happens,” “Something To Believe In”) to earn composer Menken his very first Tony statuette.

 All of this adds up to one of the most crowd-pleasing musicals of recent years, and never more so than with director-choreographer Denman giving it a distinctive new look, one that features gorgeously lit (by Paul Black) widescreen panoramas unlike any of the seven other Newsies I’ve seen, while placing the emphasis not just on athletically choreographed leaps and spins and somersaults but on authentic storytelling, with fight choreographer Kevin Matsumoto’s realistic street brawls adding to the dramatic impact.

That’s not to say the dance numbers aren’t thrilling. They are, in particular a “King Of New York” that makes such imaginative use of tables and tableware and kitchenware and brooms that even those who’ve seen more than a few Newsies will feel like they’re seeing the Act Two showstopper for the first time.

“Carrying The Banner” is particularly exhilarating too in its use of the movable scaffolding pieces that are an integral part of Kevin Clowes’s scenic design, maneuvered from place to place during the show’s opening chase sequence to make it seem almost cinematic.

Still, all of this would fall flat without a star performance as passionate and compelling and gorgeously sung as Klena’s, and supporting turns as uniformly captivating as Peña’s charmingly feisty Katherine, Baham’s Best Big Brother Ever Davey, and Avery’s irresistible Crutchie, all four triple-threats alums of Orange County’s illustrious Chance Theater.

Engel’s Pulitzer is the epitome of silky-voiced evil (at least where exploiting minors is concerned), Kent Hutzler steals hearts right and left as little Davey, and Kent’s Medda is glamour at its most voluptuous and alluring.

Brandon Halvorsen’s charismatic Albert and Taven Blanke’s somersaultasic Race are particular standouts in Newsies’ Broadway-caliber ensemble, though there’s not a weak link among them with Halvorsen, Blanke, Anthony Cannarella (Mush), Xo Hayes, Katie Marshall (Henry), Andre Darnell Myers (Specs), Laura Leo Kelly (Romeo), Shiloh Orr (Elmer), Gabby Rosales (Jo Jo), and Lizzy Sheck (Finch) delivering the goods again and again, some of them (thanks to gender-blind casting) doubling as Nuns and Bowery Beauties.

Student ensemble members Aleksi Barranco, Brady Barrett, Daxton Bethoney, Ryan Bohmholdt, Sam Borenstein, John Kasey Candelaria, Corrina Castro, Waverly Craver, Brennan Jacob Esguerra, Chloe Alyssa Hanser, Natalie Belle Hutzler, Daniel Peters, Conner Noson, and Dagny Shaw may leave most of the dancing to their elders, but the enthusiastic, talented fourteen more than double the number of Newsies on stage while reminding audiences that this was indeed child labor being exploited.

William Hartery shines as both restaurant owner Mr. Jacobi and Governor Teddy Roosevelt, Antoine Lee and Skylar Gaines are terrific as the comic baddies known as the Delancey brothers, and David Kirk Grant, Bill Ledesma, Lisa Piccoli, Corey Rieger, and Alex Riley deliver brief but effective cameos as Pulitzer staff, cronies, and/or allies.

Greer Gardener’s costumes and Molly Reeves’s props are all first-rate though Garrett Ruiz’s wig design loses points for Katherine’s over-the-top do.

Last but not least, Ryan O’Connell’s expert musical direction, the production’s tiptop pit orchestra, and Julie Ferrin’s crystal-clear sound design ensure that MTW’s Newsies sounds as good as it looks.

Piccoli is associate choreographer. Clowes is technical director. Catt Fox-Uruburu is production coordinator. Talia Krispel is stage manager and Julian Olive and Raven Chatt are assistant stage managers. Bren Thor is associate producer.

With Newsies now having completed its rounds of L.A.’s major musical theaters, it may be a good long while before SoCal audiences get to see another Broadway-caliber staging of the crowd-pleasing hit.

In other words, if you miss Newsies’ spectacular Musical Theatre West debut, you’ll have to wait a whole lot longer than you’d like for another chance to cheer.

Musical Theatre West, Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach.
www.musical.org

–Steven Stanley
July 13, 2024
Photos: Musical Theatre West

 

 

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