First Person with NEWSIES' Andrew Keenan-Bolger: My Second Chance at Crutchie

Audiences have a final chance to "Seize the Day!" - tickets are now available for Disney's Newsies: The Broadway Musical!, playing in U.S. movie theaters for three days only on Thursday, February 16 at 7:00 p.m., Saturday February 18 at 12:55 p.m. and Wednesday, February 22 at 7:00 p.m. (all local times). Captured live at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre earlier this year, the event reunites original cast members Jeremy Jordan, Kara Lindsay, Ben Fankhauser, and Andrew Keenan-Bolger.

Below, Keenan-Bolger joins BroadwayWorld as a guest author to explain why this second chance at Crutchie was so important to him...

---

Every actor dreams of getting a second chance at a role - and I'm no exception. I'll be standing in line at the grocery store or folding laundry when a line pops into my head, some new take on a key dramatic moment or a joke that I could never quite land, and I find myself l wishing for a do-over. Live theater is an amorphous art, constantly shifting and evolving with every performance. When you're reinterpreting the same material eight shows a week, it's impossible to lock in the "ideal" performance. Things that felt great in previews can feel forced three months in; jokes that got big laughs in the rehearsal room may suddenly fall flat in front of a paying audience. We're constantly forced to adjust and tweak our performances to stay fresh, to adapt to new cast members, or just to maintain our connection with the material.

So when a musical's run comes to an end, you're unlikely to feel like you've ever nailed the "perfect" performance - even after a thousand shows. But sometimes, you're offered that rare chance to put your old costume back on and get one last shot at a role.

It had been over three years since I took my last bow as Crutchie, the physically disabled newsie with a heart of gold. Life had taken me in new directions and afforded opportunities to tackle new roles, and with the national tour coming to an end, I'd figured that my days carrying the banner were long behind me. But when I got the call (yes, these things still happen on the phone!) offering the chance to take part in Newsies: The Movie Event, I was ecstatic. After two weeks of rehearsing material I never thought I'd get a chance to revisit - joined by some of my closest friends from the original Broadway cast - we filmed it onstage at the Pantages Theater.

Unlike previous Fathom events, filming didn't just capture a single performance, but a whole week of set-ups on a closed set. For the first time, we were able to tell audiences the story of the Newsboys' Strike of 1899 from views and angles they could never have seen from an orchestra seat in the Nederlander Theater. For the performers, it was an opportunity to not only return to some of our most cherished roles, but to have our performances preserved for posterity in a way never before done with a Broadway show. Of course, knowing that this version would live on forever put even more pressure to revisit Crutchie in the most resonant way possible.

Walking into rehearsal on the first day, my biggest fears had nothing to do with my performance - and everything to do with meeting the extremely talented (and extremely young) members of the touring cast. It sounds like a cliche, but on Broadway, the cast of Newsies was a family. When you assemble eighteen guys in a room who share so much of the same identity, you're bound to make a profound connection. With a cast composed almost entirely of young men who grew up in the dance world, the Broadway performers formed tight bonds that aren't automatic in casts with wider age ranges and theatrical backgrounds. Performers used to being outsiders - as male dancers often feel like when they're growing up - suddenly had a massive peer group whose passions reflected their own.

I think that much of the success of the Broadway mounting of Newsies was due in no small part to the infectious camaraderie on stage between the boys. The cast's authentic friendship, trust and support shone through to audiences emotionally - and, with Chris Gattelli's death-defying choreography, physically.

Knowing that the tour cast likely shared a similar bond, I worried that adding Kara [Lindsay], Jeremy [Jordan], Ben [Fankhauser] and myself to this equation was going to somehow mess with the magic that comes from touring the country by plane, train and automobile to bring Newsies to new audiences. But by the first ten-minute break, we were laughing and slapping each other on the backs along with the touring cast. Even though we had never met most of them, we shared a bond that could only come from telling the resonant story of kids on the margins of society banding together to make the world a better place. At the time, Newsies was the most important and proudest thing any of the four of us had worked on, and the same went for our brothers on the road. When you have that in common, it's hard to feel like an outsider.

As a result, the theater tingled with electricity once we started filming. Knowing that it was a now-or-never moment, everyone was giving an extra burst of energy and pushing their bodies further than they'd ever imagined. Even in scenes where I wasn't onstage, I'd linger in the wings as cast members would leap from the towers, twirl like tops, and, in the case of cast member Jordan Samuels, literally fly. I knew what we were capturing was special, and even the camera crew - used to documenting huge moments on film - were often rendered speechless after watching our boys defy gravity for hours at a time.

As we took our bows on the final day of filming, 2,700 fans cheering in the live audience, I knew the performance had been a triumph - yet if I could go back, there were still things I wish I could change. There was a joke in Act 1 that I didn't quite nail, and my voice felt a little strained for my solo in Act 2. But I think that is just the nature of the beast. No live performance can ever be perfect, and that's what keeps you on your toes - it pushes you to practice harder, show up for that 8 a.m. ballet class, and walk through the stage door every night just to have the chance to do it all again.

---

Disney's Newsies: The Broadway Musical! will play in U.S. movie theaters for three days only on Thursday, February 16 at 7:00 p.m., Saturday February 18 at 12:55 p.m. and Wednesday, February 22 at 7:00 p.m. (all local times). Tickets can be purchased online by visiting www.FathomEvents.com or at participating theater box offices.