Coterie & Jewish Community Center Team Up With Regional Premiere Of NEWSIES

The Coterie Theatre and the White Theatre at "The J," the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, will "Seize the Day" with their co-production of Disney's Newsies for a limited run opening July 7 and continuing through July 29.

The show will mark The Coterie and The J's first collaboration, as well as the Kansas City region's first locally-produced production of Newsies. This production features a cast of all-local professional and non-professional adult and youth actors, and will be performed live on stage at The White Theatre at The J, 5801 W. 115th Street, in Overland Park.

This co-production is directed by Jerry Jay Cranford, who will also serve as choreographer, with musical direction by Pam Williamson, a veteran of 10 musicals at The J.

Production dates are: Wednesdays July 11, 18* @ 7:30 p.m.; Thursdays July 12, 19 & 26 @ 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays July 7, 14* & 21 @ 7:30 p.m. and Sundays, July 8, 15*, 22 & 29 @ 2 p.m. (NOTE: *Performances will include The J's Open Captioning on July 14, 15 and 18.)

Set in New York City at the turn of the century, Newsies tells 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 features music by eight-time Academy Award winner Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Sister Act), lyrics by Jack Feldman, and a book by four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein (La Cage aux Folles, Torch Song Trilogy). Originally written for the 1992 feature film musical, Menken's stirring score is often credited for the cult following Newsies has developed since its initial release. The multiple Tony Award-winning stage production of Newsies, which ran on Broadway from 2012-2014, adapts many of Menken's memorable melodies, including "Carrying the Banner," "King of New York," "Santa Fe," and "Seize the Day," and expands the score with new songs that help tell the inspiring real-life story of the '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.