Casting Announced for Disney's NEWSIES in Charlotte

Casting has been announced for the Charlotte engagement of Disney's NEWSIES. The Tony® Award-winning production will begin performances at Belk Theater at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, August 9 for a limited engagement through Sunday, August 14.

The production features Joey Barreiro as "Jack Kelly," Steve Blanchard as "Joseph Pulitzer," Morgan Keene as "Katherine," Aisha de Haas as "Medda Larkin," Stephen Michael Langton as "Davey," Andy Richardson as "Crutchie" and Turner Birthisel and Ethan Steiner alternating the role of "Les."

Rounding out the cast are Bill Bateman, Josh Burrage, Kevin Carolan, Michael Dameski, Julian DeGuzman, Nico DeJesus, JP Ferreri, Sky Flaherty, Kaitlyn Frank, Michael Gorman, Stephen Hernandez, Meredith Inglesby, James Judy, Eric Scott Kincaid, Devin Lewis, Eric Jon Mahlum, Nicholas Masson, Anthony Norman, Becca Petersen, Michael J. Rios, Jordan Samuels, Daniel Switzer, Andrew Wilson, Chaz Wolcott, Iain Young and Anthony Zas.

NEWSIES will play Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8:00 p.m., Saturday at 2:00 and 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 and 7:00 p.m. Tickets are available at the Blumenthal Box Office by calling (704)372-1000, or via the Internet at BlumenthalArts.org.

Ticket buyers are reminded that Blumenthal Performing Arts and CarolinaTix are the only official retail ticket outlets for all performances at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. Ticket buyers who purchase tickets from a ticket broker or any third party should be aware that Blumenthal Performing Arts is unable to reprint or replace lost or stolen tickets and is unable to contact patrons with information regarding time changes or other pertinent updates regarding the performance.

NEWSIES, the new American musical, features a Tony® Award-winning score with music by eight-time Academy Award® winner Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman, a book by four-time Tony® Award winner Harvey Fierstein and is 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. The entire creative team has reunited to bring the break-out smash musical to audiences across North America.

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 of 1005 performances, attendance of more than 1 million and a gross of over $100M.

While on Broadway, NEWSIES set and broke seven Nederlander Theatre house records and became the highest-grossing show from the 2011-12 Broadway season. 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.

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 stage version introduces seven brand-new songs by the original team of Menken and Feldman, including a song written specifically for the tour called 'Letter from the Refuge,' while keeping many of the beloved songs from the film, including 'Carrying the Banner, 'Seize the Day,' 'King of New York' and 'Santa Fe.'

Since the film's 1992 theatrical release and subsequent DVD release, NEWSIES has grown into a cult phenomenon, and for years had been the single most requested title of all the Disney musical films not yet adapted for the stage. (The film featured a screenplay by Bob Tzudiker & Noni White (Tarzan, 102 Dalmatians).)

For more information, visit http://NewsiesTheMusical.com, Facebook.com/Newsies and Twitter.com/Newsies.

The Charlotte engagement of NEWSIES is presented by arrangement with Blumenthal Performing Arts and is a subscription offering of the 2015-2016 PNC Broadway Lights Series.

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