BWW Reviews: Non-Stop Movement Marks NEWSIES Musical at The Hippodrome

Non-Stop Movement Marks NEWSIES Musical at The Hippodrome

What do you do with a movie that is panned at its release, embarrasses its waning or rising stars, is swept under the rug and largely forgotten by most of the world? Why, you turn it into an award-winning Broadway musical, of course.

Yes, in 1992, the Newsies film musical- originally written by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White as a non-musical screenplay- was a box office disaster. But Disney, never known for wastefulness, kept it in the vaults gathering dust and a videotape cult fanbase. After the 1994 Broadway success of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, Disney began adapting films for stage productions (including touring and merchandise), and Newsies became the most highly requested of the Disney musical films that had yet to be adapted for the stage. When the show opened in 2012, its run was slated for just over one hundred performances. However, "fanzies" pushed the run to over 1,000 performances and it became the highest-grossing show of Broadway's '11-'12 season.

If you already love any version of NEWSIES, you'll have reason to like this one. If you've no notion of the thing at all but love athletic dancing and fanciful choreography, you won't be disappointed. If you're a tech geek like me and enjoy fabulous set design, movement and nearly 500 lighting cues, you'll be entertained and perhaps amazed. If you know nothing of the NEWSIES plot or personages, you'll need patience and careful perusal of your programme.

The show opens with a giant projection of turn-of-the-century New York City on a huge 9-panelled screen, which slides upstage to become the New York city skyline, while some other bits of staircase scaffolding roll in and set us up on the rooftop of (presumably) the Newsboys' Lodging House, where we hear actors Dan DeLuca(Jack) and Zachary Sayle(Crutchie) sing a ballad about Santa Fe and longing to escape there, before we have any idea who these people are and what they're trying to escape.

The second number does what an opening number ought to do- it's no Skid Row, NEWSIES' composer Alan Menken's excellent opener for LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS- but it serves to display the Newsie boys and articulate some of their difficulties, and it incorporates fancy choreography for human dancers as well as fabulous set pieces. Beautifully done! Synchronized newsboy dancers! Moving in and around three stories of moving set pieces! NEWSIES particularly showcases enthusiastic, athletic, acrobatic dancing- the Company is chockablock with high-end dancers equal to the complications of Christopher Gattelli's choreography, which deservedly earned this show one of its Tony awards.

Also visually stunning is the transformation of Tony-nominee Tobin Ost's 9-panelled screen into three 3-story towers, which have their own choreographed moves and no obvious mode of propulsion. Magic? Magnets? Clockwork? Squirrels? Ost's set did not win; his competition in 2012 was GHOST: THE MUSICAL, SPIDERMAN TURN OFF THE DARK and ONCE. Load-in of this 24-foot seven-and-a-half ton behemoth took two days and sixty people.

Ost's giant towers, Sven Ortel's projections, Jeff Croiter's lighting and other tech in this show are used imaginatively, creating suggestive settings, giving close-up viewpoints in realtime, (or the illusion of such), effecting an interesting, dynamic environment so enjoyable that the incorporation of high-end modern technological artifices as means of immersing the audience in the period in which NEWSIES is set (1899) is ironic mostly in retrospect.

Jess Goldstein's costuming, largely evocative rather than stringently accurate (all the pieces fit, looked clean, and there were holes in nobody's boots) did little to discriminate one Newsie from another, an issue compounded by their "standard theatrical New York accent" delivery of lines. Can we make out individuals? Sure- there's one wearing glasses. This one has a cigar all the time, and is a fantastic dancer. Oh, there's New Guy, and New Guy's Wee Brother. Ah, look- it's Jack, and the guy with the crutch. Here are some un-named charitable nuns. Here they are! There they go! We never see them again. Oh, here's a girl. She says something sassy and calls one of the Newsie boys Romeo. Here's a rich fella in his office; he must be the Fat Cat Big Boss Bad Guy- aha, it's Joseph Pulitzer, so elegantly embodied by Steve Blanchard that his challenges as a vocalist are forgiven. He's having a shave by Nunzio the Barber, played by the most versatile man in the cast, Kevin Carolan, who portrays no fewer than seven people during the course of the show. Here's Angela Grovey as Metta Larkin, a big-bosomed theatrical lady- do enjoy her vocal number- she only gets one, but deserves more. Here's that girl again. Her name's Katherine. Ooh, Jack likes her.

Scene changes are rapid-fire, full of movement that narrowly escapes being frenetic, and packed with visual interest. Director Jeff Calhoun deftly handles the interaction of many actors and moving set pieces. We are always sure "where" we are and what's going on. The ear adjusts to the "New York" accent, though the pacing of dialogue makes focusing on any particular bit of information difficult, so missing some useful nugget is likely.

Katherine and Jack are standard likeable cookie cutter Disney hero/ine/s, though Stephanie Styles, who plays Jack's love interest, does so with conviction, articulation and an impressive set of pipes. New Guy, whose name turns out to be Davey, is capably and sympathetically played by Jacob Kemp. Adorable Younger Brother is played by two actors who alternate. Vincent Crocilla (Saturday & Sunday matinee) performs the requisite Little Fella role with precisely the right amount of adorability to make the kid lovable rather than cloying and not a hint of stiffness or SuperFake StageKid Syndrome.

By the end of the first act, I still don't know the names of the Newsies, (except for Jack), including the hobbling one who appears with Jack in the first scene. This may be of no importance whatsoever to the plot, but it makes an audience member feel a remove from the characters that a simple introduction would alleviate, and a book-writer of Harvey Fierstein's experience should know better.

Intermission permits exploration of the gorgeous Hippodrome Theatre; have a look at photographs of bygone Baltimore theater venues displayed along the corridor walls. At this performance you're permitted to bring concessions into the theater proper, something I just can't manage to do- years of conditioning leave their mark.

This is a heartwarming story about a downtrodden and disenfranchised subsection of society, about their struggle against Big Industry, eventually resulting in OSHA and child labor laws. It's a story that would be the ideal vehicle for Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, a sort of "Hey, kids, let's put on a strike!"musical in brilliant Technicolor, with Judy Garland as the Plucky Girl Reporter and Mickey Rooney as the Underdog Hero For The Common Man.

Judy and Mickey are gone, and there are no modern counterparts to replace them, not that contemporary audiences would embrace the sort wholesome entertainment that they personified. Even so, it may be the just right time to see a show featuring a powerless population subjected to systematic exploitation and brutalization whose small but important actions regarding social ethics have an effect that ripples to NEWSIES- or any show- being required to have two actors to play a guy under the age of ten.

And it's always a great time to watch some excellent young dancers.

If you plan to have a bite before curtain, there are many options, including Panera across Baltimore Street, next to the Pita Place, and a McDonald's at the corner of Baltimore and Paca. Starbucks is on the other side of Eutaw, and there's a Potbelly sandwich shop a few blocks away on the corner of Greene and Pratt. To enjoy a repast at Hipp Cafe, located beside the South Lobby, you may wish to make reservations, as seating caps at 85. Visit www.the-hippcafe.com

NEWSIES plays at The Hippodrome Theatre, 12 North Eutaw Street, Baltimore, MD

through Sunday December 7

Tuesday through Saturday performances at 8 pm

Saturday matinee 2:00 pm

Sunday matinee 1:00 pm, Sunday evening 6:30 pm.

Tickets are available at the Hippodrome Theare Box Office,

Ticketmaster Outlets, Ticketmaster by phone at 800-982-ARTS,

or online at www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com/Baltimore. For more information, visit www.france-merrickpac.com