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| Cast of Newsies (Mark Kitaoka) |
Disney’s Newsies
Village Theatre
Issaquah through December 28, 2017
Everett: January 5-28, 2018
There is a pack of muscular male singers and dancers taking
over the stage at Village Theatre! They are demanding that audiences pay more
attention and stop reducing it, in an effort to make a living! If audiences do
not pay more, they may well strike! And we really do not want that because they
are extremely effective at what they do.
A robust, energetic and rousing production of the musical, Newsies, which details the Newsboy
Strike of 1899 against Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst’s
newspapers, brings Issaquah audiences to their feet. The very large cast is
called upon to dance huge numbers in sync, including a major tap number at the
top of the second act.
The real life story was that Pulitzer and Hearst and all the
other papers of the day raised their rate for newsboy payment to 60 cents per
hundred from 50 cents. The newsboys paid for papers and then had to sell as
many as they could for as much as they could to get their money back and have
money to live off of. That seemingly small raise was an extreme hardship to the
army of children and, in an era of other large strikes, they were motivated to
strike, too.
After a 1992 movie, composer Alan Menken, lyricist Jack
Feldman, and book writer Harvey Fierstein made a musical which made its
Broadway debut in 2012. The national tour came to Seattle and Joey Barreiro starred as Jack Kelly,
the charismatic newsboy leader who dreams of going west to Santa Fe. Barriero
struts his stuff here as well and brings a full range of emoting to the
starring role, providing a satisfying chemistry with local favorite Taylor Niemeyer as Katherine.
Niemeyer also gives it her all in a self-possessed, sturdy
portrait of a young woman reporter. She shows off her beautiful voice and also
chimes in on the tap dancing in Act 2. The role is written nicely for the one
female lead in a massively masculine musical (try saying that three times
fast), though it’s a desperately improbable one when she turns out to be
Pulitzer’s daughter. The movie had no such “love interest” and the reporter was
male. The musical writers obviously tried to find some way of making a leading
woman fit into the story and making it into a love story.
But it’s easy to overlook any script weaknesses (including a
scene with all the children of the richest families in NYC helping the poorest)
when the deft orchestra swells (led by music director R.J. Tancioco) and the two dozen dancers swing onto stage for
another big number. The focus and energetic direction of Steve Tomkins and the agile (and sometimes faithful to the Broadway
original) choreography by Katy Tabb
keep the production amped at full speed.
Christopher Mumaw’s
surprisingly flexible sets move seamlessly from outdoor bowery to indoor
theater and back again. Cynthia Savage’s
costuming works well for poor urchins and wealthy mucks like Joseph Pulitzer (Greg Stone) alike. Sound, designed and
well-balanced by Brett Warwick makes
everyone completely heard. The one area of tech that seems fussy and overbearing
is lighting by Aaron Copp. The
lighting changes so much during some songs that it seemed like it was supposed
to be all about the lighting.
In addition to the big roles, a few smaller standouts
deserve mention: Michael Krenning as
a lame Crutchie is plucky and full of heart; Cherisse Martinelli is enormous fun as a Pulitzer secretary (for a
hot second); Ulyber Mangune and Davione Gordon show off their dancing;
and Guthrie Greenwood Bettinger, the
youngest Newsie, steals most of his scenes with great comic timing!
Fun for the whole family, this is great counter-holiday
programming that still feels like a holiday!
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