#also I'm very specifically talking about the movie version i haven't watched the stage show yet

[welcometogrouchland]

Fucked up that the best song in the Newsies movie is the opening and it's subsequent finale reprise. Everything in between is also good but also being sung by untrained teenage boys (one of whom is a young Christian Bale fighting his own internal battle of needing to be obsessed with every role he plays vs thinking being in a musical is cringe). You kind of can't hear their individual weaknesses though when they're in a big catchy chorus number you're not meant to take too seriously. Hence, best number is Carryin' the Banner. Also in the very last section where part of the chorus yells "you got em cowboy! Go get em cowboy!' Is unmatched. Slay-ass counterpoint

#ramblings of a lunatic #not actually sure if that counts at counterpoint but whatever #anyway guess what i watched today! #good time. i was inspired by biz barclays video on it. nobody else talk to me about newsies unless it's her /j #i just loved unmatched passion for niche topics #also I'm very specifically talking about the movie version i haven't watched the stage show yet #i might but tbh i think the whole them being played by adults isn't working for me. like conceptually

[tending-the-hearth]

Bestie, as someone who has never seen newsies and only knows about it through your posts * Waves hand* rant? ramble? elaborate? summarize? whatever you want to call it! Imagine i had never seen Cats and you were about to change my life by telling me about it. Just absolutely go ham telling me literally everything about it. Literally anything. Which version should i watch first? Headcanons? Favorite scenes? Favorite characters? Favorite songs? Whatever! All of the above or another sixth thing i haven't thought of. I am curious about Newsies and i want to know more! Please Share! :D

YES YES YES THANK YOU BESTIE I'M SO EXCITED TO TALK ABOUT NEWSIES

okay so Newsies first started as a movie done by Disney, directed by Kenny Ortega (yes, THAT Kenny Ortega) and with music by Alan Menken, and it was released in 1992, starring Christian Bale as Jack Kelly!

the musical is based off of the 1899 New York Newsies strike, and focuses on the Manhattan borough, led by Jack Kelly, who strike against Joseph Pulitzer. David Jacobs and his younger brother, Les, join the strike, and the newsies work to bring in other boroughs and draw support from other kids working in the city.

now, the frustrating thing is that the stage musical deviates from the movie in a few points:

in the 1992 movie, there's a reporter named Denton, who offers to write about the strike. Also in the 1992 movie is David's sister, Sarah, who is Jack's love interest. the musical basically combines Denton and Sarah into Katherine, who is a writer for the Sun (like Denton) and who is Jack's main love interest.

the 1992 movie makes it VERY easy to figure out which newsie is which, and focuses on the newsies as a whole, and their relationships with each other. the musical is MUCH more centered around just Jack, as well as just his relationship with Katherine. In the 1992 movie, Jack and Sarah's relationship is more background.

i'd personally go with watching the 1992 movie first. it's the entire reason i fell in love with the show, and it's the version i honestly prefer. Christian Bale's Jack is SO soft and wonderful, and i love his interactions with the rest of the newsies. I'm not saying the Broadway version is bad, but it's different, so i'd say do the OG version first!

i honestly think the reason it was easy for me to come into the Cats fandom and start identifying the different cats was because of Newsies lmao. There are so many different background boys, but like i said, the 1992 movie makes it EXTREMELY easy to identify all of them. it's the stage version that makes it ridiculously hard to figure out who is who, which is why i suggest doing the original movie first, and learning the characters from that!

note: the Broadway version (specifically the U.S. tour) added a song for Crutchie called "Letter from the Refuge", which isn't included in the original cast recording, but the pro-shoot they did a few years ago has it in there!

ok so some of my favorite scenes from both the movie and stage show!!!!! (probably most of these will be from the movie lmao)

1992: Kloppman (the owner of the lodging house that the newsies stay in) wakes Jack up, and they have a very adorable father/son-type back and forth with each other

1992: where Racetrack (one of my favorite newsies) is asking for a towel, and Skittery (my other favorite newsie) says "for a buck i might" and the scene is just so PURE and brotherly like???? they're siblings?????

1992: "dear me, i fear the sewer may have backed up during the night" "or is it... the Delancey brothers!" they're little SHITS and i love them

1992: "baby born with three heads" "must be from brooklyn"

1992: gotta highlight @cutesiewooren's boy Blink here, his line "a saturday night with the mayer's daughter" gets me EVERY SINGLE TIME in "king of new york"

broadway: also speaking of "king of new york" it's impossible to talk about it without talking about the broadway line of "and when your famous... the woild... is yer erster!" "ya what?" "ya know, the fancy claim with the pearl inside?"

1992: "your honor, i object" "on what grounds" "on the grounds of Brooklyn" spot conlon my FUCKING beloved

broadway: any of the background dialogue during the "king of new york" tap scene, it's perfect

my favorite songs would probably have to be:

"Carrying the Banner"

"Seize the Day"

"Watch What Happens"

"High Times, Hard Times" (1992 movie)

"Something to Believe In"

"Once and For All"

now for favorite characters!! once again, because the 1992 movie does SUCH a better job at giving each newsie a unique personality and highlights them, it's mainly based off of those versions!

Mush... my love... my boy... my darling... my everything...

Racetrack... Racer... love...

(gotta include both max and ben's racers, they're iconic)

David!!! ofc!!!! my beloved!!!! he's just like me fr!!

spot conlon!!!!!

skittery!!!! i've done a whole appreciation post for him but he!!!!

literally i could name every single newsie bc i love all of them. jack is a given, but i specifically love 1992 Jack. I've been meaning to make a whole analysis post on it, but Christian Bale just really plays such a heartwarming and soft Jack. His interactions with the rest of the newsies, with Sarah, with the adults, you can just feel how much he cares about everyone around him.

a little fun fact about the 1992 movie:

while in production, the newsie boys basically shot a mini-horror movie called "Blood Drips Heavily on Newsies Square" that is the FUNNIEST fucking thing i've ever watched in my life

like it features all of the cast + a lot of the crew, and you can absolutely tell this was made by a bunch of teenage boys who had way too much time on their hands in between filming

you can probably find the whole thing on youtube, and i 100% recommend watching it

and a few cast crossover facts bc i can't resist:

Jess LeProtto (2016 revival Mungojerrie) was Jojo in the original Broadway cast!

Mukeni Nel (who was part of the 2019 international tour as Bill Bailey + Mistoffelees cover, as well as the 2020 Asia tour as Carbucketty) is currently playing Jojo in the UK Tour of Newsies!

Giuseppe Bausilio (2016 revival Carbucketty) was also in the original Broadway cast, and I believe later performed as Racetrack!

Mike Faist (who was a Delancey brother/ensemble member in the original Broadway cast) was the original Connor Murphy in Dear Evan Hansen

quite a few of the OBC newsie actors (Including Jess and Mike) were part of the 2021 West Side Story film!

Jeremy Jordan (OBC Jack Kelly) has done SO much but my favorite fact is that he voices Varian in the Tangled animated series!

also i saw Kara Lindsay (OBC Katherine) as Glinda in Wicked back in 2015 or 2016, and she was absolutely INCREDIBLE

and finally, a few hcs:

Jack is unofficially adopted by the Jacobs family as soon as they meet him, they see this scruffy jaded boy and immediately go "he's ours"

Katherine's newsie name is "Scribble", and ONLY Jack is allowed to call her "Ace"

Sarah's is "Mama Bear" because she can and will go absolutely feral if she sees any of her boys getting hurt

Spot can't swim (idk why, i just think it's funny if he lives near the docks and can't swim to save his life)

no one's actually sure if Specs needs glasses, or if they're fake. at this point, they're too afraid to ask, and Specs just thinks it's absolutely hilarious that they're trying to figure it out.

Patrick's mother (who's shown at the beginning of the movie during "Carrying the Banner") never finds her son, but she, like Mrs. Jacobs and Medda, becomes a type of surrogate mother for a lot of the newsies.

that's all i can think about right now lmao, but i love getting to rant and ramble about one of my absolute favorite musicals of ALL time!!! and you know i'm always down to answer asks about newsies any time, bestie!!

#newsies #broadway #disney on broadway #newsies 1992 #1992sies #broadwaysies #newsies uk #west endsies