Newsboys
shut down New York City with song and dance
By
Alec Clayton
Published in the Weekly
Volcano, Sept. 27, 2018
 |
| The cast of Newsies, photo by Kat Dollarhide |
Disney’s
Newsies at Tacoma Musical Playhouse
is a romping stomping look at the beginnings of the labor movement, based on the
true story of an historic strike by newsboys that brought business to a
standstill in New York in 1899. Newsies
won Tony awards for Best Choreography (Christopher Gattelli) and Best Original
Score (Alan Menken and Jack Feldman). Locally, choreographer Megan Hicks
adapted the challenging dance numbers to fit on a smaller stage with 35-plus
actors running, leaping, spinning and turning flips in a space where it would
seem impossible to move without knocking fellow dancers flat on their backs —
quite the choreographic feat, and they pulled it off.
Newsies is an exuberant, high-energy show with
a huge cast but only a handful of lead characters, including the versatile and
exciting Jake Atwood as Jack Kelly, leader of the striking news boys; Sam
Bennett as his best friend Crutchie; Colin Briskey as Davey; 10-year-old Howy
Howard as Les; Ashley Koon as the reporter Katherine, a not-so-surprising love
interest; and Lakewood Playhouse Artistic Director John Munn as the autocratic
Joseph Pulitzer. It’s a stellar cast.
In
the past few years it has been my pleasure to review Atwood’s work in wide
range of musicals from Footloose to Catch Me If You Can, to The Rocky Horror Show, and in each of
these, different versions of his talent have been manifest. In theater circles
there’s a phrase, “chewing the scenery,” that is usually a derogatory meaning to
display excessive emotion. Atwood not only chews the
scenery, he spits it out and makes the audience love it. He plays Jack as a
wisecracking, streetwise tough guy with a sensitive core. He’s not only tough,
he’s highly flawed and vulnerable.
Howard
might be young, but he’s no novice to the stage. He was recently seen in Beauty and the Beast at TMP and has been
in 14 of their youth camp shows. He holds his own and shines brightly among the
adult actors.
Koon
and Bennett each play their parts well and have voices that stand out. Bennett
is particularly outstanding on the poignant “Letter from the Refuge” in the
beginning of Act Two.
Munn
is convincingly autocratic and powerful with terrific acting chops as Joseph
Pulitzer the complex newspaper tycoon who championed labor until it came to his
own paper.
Two
giants of South Sound stagecraft, Blake York and Bruce Haasl, were responsible
for the gorgeous set — a group of moveable industrial stairs and balconies with
a backdrop that combined newspaper pages and graffiti, said backdrop
beautifully lighted with changing colors by lighting designer Jacob Viramontes
and lighting operator Demmarie McKay.
Few
of the cast members are identified by name in the show, so I can’t credit all I
would like to. I would like to point out Alex Domine as Race and Jessica
Furnstahl, recently seen as Elle Woods in Broadway Olympia Productions’ Legally Blonde, for her energetic and
expressive dancing.
Kudos
to the whole cast and crew of Newsies.
Special kudos for casting women as a good number of the news boys.
Newsies,
8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through Oct. 7, Tacoma Musical Playhouse
at The Narrows Theatre, 7116 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, $22-$31, 253.565.6867,
http://www.tmp.org
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