Last Edition: NEWSIES Stars Recall Favorite Memories- Joshua Colley

NEWSIES plays its final performance on Broadway this coming Sunday, August 24, but BroadwayWorld (and the rest of New York, we hope) isn't ready to let the musical leave just yet! Throughout the week, we continue the Newsies love by bringing you favorite memories from a slew of the current and past stars of the show!

JOSHUA COLLEY (Former Les)

I knew the moment that I got the role that my life was going to change. And boy did it! I remember getting through rehearsals and hitting the stage for my put in. All of the cast and crew were so nice to me and made me feel welcome. Well, there we were going over the fight scene in the show. We went over how the fight was to go down so that everyone would be safe. My part included jumping into a barrel, having it thrown on its side and then pushed across the stage while everyone else is fighting all around me. We were getting ready to run the scene, and I tell the newsie that was going to be pushing me across the stage to take it easy on me because it was my first time in the barrel. That's when he turns to me and says, "Really? This is my first time pushing the barrel." At first I thought he was joking, but I wasn't quite sure. We ran through the scene at full speed, and before I knew it I was rolling across the stage. Just when I thought the barrel would never stop rolling, it did, right before the orchestra pit. It was so exciting and frightening at the same time. I knew I was going to love playing this role! Newsies forever!

---

NEWSIES features a Tony Award-winning score with music by eight-time Academy Award winner Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman, with a book by four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein. Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, NEWSIES is directed by Tony nominee Jeff Calhoun and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, who won a 2012 Tony Award for his work.

When it opened on March 29, 2012, Newsies was intended for a Broadway run of just 101 performances. The show's fiercely devoted fans had other ideas, however: they propelled the show to a run that will total 1005 performances, attendance of more than 1 million and a gross of over $100M. At the time of Newsies' closing, only the landmark musical Rent will have played the Nederlander Theatre longer in its 93 year history.

Set in New York City at the turn of the century, Newsies is the rousing tale of Jack Kelly, a charismatic newsboy and leader of a ragged band of teenaged 'newsies,' who dreams only of a better life far from the hardship of the streets. But when publishing titans Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise distribution prices at the newsboys' expense, Jack finds a cause to fight for and rallies newsies from across the city to strike for what's right.