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TBT: A Look Back at Newsies' Opening Night to Celebrate Andrew Keenan-Bolger's Birthday!

By: May. 16, 2019
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It's time to seize the day because we're celebrating the birthday of Broadway's original Crutchie from Newsies, Andrew Keenan-Bolger! In honor of the occasion, we're throwing it back to the hit show's opening night with Andrew alongside his co-stars Jeremy Jordan, Ben Fankhauser, Kara Lindsay, and more! Check out all the footage below to watch what happens!

Andrew's Broadway credits include Tuck Everlasting, Newsies, Mary Poppins, Seussical, Beauty and the Beast and A Christmas Carol. He's been seen in the national tours of Spelling Bee, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Mary Poppins and Ragtime. His Film and TV credits include: "Billy Frazier" in The Rewrite starring Hugh Grant, Marci X, Are You Joking?,Nurse Jackie (Showtime), Looking (HBO), Naked Brothers Band, and One Life to Live. His work as a filmmaker has been profiled in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The Associated Press and New York Magazine. Andrew holds a B.F.A. from the University of Michigan.

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 totaled 1005 performances; only the landmark musical Rent has played the Nederlander Theatre longer in its 93 year history. The show received 23 major theatrical nominations - including eight Tony Award nods - and won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Score and Choreography. In what is among its lasting legacies, Newsies provided 32 exceptional young performers their Broadway debuts.

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. Newsies is inspired by the real-life 'Newsboy Strike of 1899,' when newsboy Kid Blink led a band of orphan and runaway newsies on a two-week-long action against Pulitzer, Hearst and other powerful newspaper publishers.

The original Broadway company of Newsies featured Jeremy Jordan as Jack Kelly, John Dossett as Joseph Pulitzer, Kara Lindsay as Katherine Plumber, Capathia Jenkins as Medda, Ben Fankhauser as Davey, Andrew Keenan-Bolger as Crutchie, and Lewis Grosso, and Matthew Schechter alternating the role of Les. The original ensemble of Newsies featured Aaron J. Albano, Mark Aldrich, Tommy Bracco, John E. Brady, Ryan Breslin, Kevin Carolan, Madeline Trumble, Kyle Coffman, Mike Faist, Michael Fatica, Julie Foldesi, Garett Hawe, Thayne Jasperson, Evan Kasprzak, Jess LeProtto, Stuart Marland, Andy Richardson, Jack Scott, Ryan Steele, Brendon Stimson, Nick Sullivan, Ephraim Sykes, Laurie Veldheer, Alex Wong, and Stuart Zagnit.




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