Review: DISNEY'S NEWSIES at Broadway Rose Theater Company
This high-energy dance spectacular runs through August 16.
Broadway Rose's production of Disney's NEWSIES, directed by Lyn Cramer and choreographed by Amy Reynolds-Reed, is a dance-stravaganza, full stop. With a cast of 29, including eight dancers brought in from New York, this production moves.
In the reverse of how these things usually happen, NEWSIES began its life in 1992 as a movie starring then-teen-hearthrob Christian Bale. It was inspired by the real Newsboys' Strike of 1899, when a coalition of young newspaper sellers in New York City banded together to fight back against the media giants Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst hiking the price the boys had to pay for their bundles of papers to sell. The film was pretty much a flop in theaters but developed a devoted cult following on home video, eventually leading Disney to adapt it for the stage. Featuring music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Jack Feldman, a book by Harvey Fierstein, and several show-stopping dance numbers, the stage version premiered on Broadway in 2012, earning eight Tony nominations and taking home two wins, including the well-deserved Best Choreography.
Broadway Rose has been steadily raising its dance game over the past several years, and augmenting the local ensemble with New York talent pushes this production to a new high point. NEWSIES is essentially a big dance show wearing the trimmings of a story about the power of collective action. On opening night, the tap numbers alone sent the audience into a frenzy (shoutout to local dancer Emerson Lempko), which only built from there: Tyler Grant Luff spun through pirouettes too numerous to count, while Keaton Bartz repeatedly backflipped across the stage, to appreciative roars from the crowd.
On the non-dance performance side, Broadway Rose favorite Sophie MacKay is fabulous as ever in the role of Katherine Plumber, particularly in her solo "Watch What Happens," which is a highlight of the night. Grant Goldman is solid as the main newsboy Jack Kelly, and Sam Myerson is wonderful as Crutchie, whose song “Letter From the Refuge,” brought an unexpected tear to my eye. Josie Seid brings a sultry warmth to Medda Larkin, while Dorian Woolfe Baxter charms as 10-year-old Les.
The set itself is fairly spare, with a few moveable pieces to create the various locations and Kristeen Willis’s lighting design doing much of the heavy lifting. This is a practical choice as at any moment, the entire company might start dancing.
Taken as a whole, this is a big, joyful, high-energy night at the theatre with a message about how to successfully stand up to corporate greed. Whether you’re a NEWSIES fan or you’re seeing it for the first time (which I was), you’ll have a great time. Appropriate for theatre lovers of all ages, and recommended especially for dance enthusiasts.
Disney's NEWSIES runs at the Deb Fennell Auditorium in Tigard through August 16. Details and tickets here.
Photo credit: Fletcher Wold
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