KYLE WATKINS PHOTOGRAPHY
Cast members in The Vanguard Theater Company’s production of “Newsies.”
It has been a good month for athletic feats, with The Knicks winning, and The World Cup taking place … and the production of the testosterone-filled musical “Newsies” that is currently being presented by The Vanguard Theater Company in Montclair. This production features some of the most physically impressive dancing I’ve seen in a theater, in a long time.
Members of the mostly male cast propel themselves all around the stage with abandon, frequently — and flawlessly —executing handsprings and somersaults and cartwheels. Choreographer Jasón N. Wells — following the lead of the original production, which premiered at The Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn in 2011 and moved to Broadway in 2012 — intends to evoke the wild energy of the show’s characters, who are mostly homeless adolescent orphans trying to scrape together a living as newsboys (or, as they call themselves, newsies) in 1899 New York. And boy, does he.
KYLE WATKINS PHOTOGRAPHY
Charli Bush and Amron Salgado in “Newsies.”
Just as strong as the dancing, though, are the voices of lead actors Amron Salgado and Charli Bush as the charismatic newsie Jack and the aspiring reporter Katherine. The two fall in love when Katherine covers, and abets, the newsies as they go on strike to try to prevent greedy newspaper owner Joseph Pulitzer (Dan Maceyak) from increasing the price of the papers he sells to them, and therefore decreasing their meager profits. It is an uphill battle, but the newsies are a scrappy crew, and Katherine is a resourceful accomplice.
“What fascinates me about this story is not simply that they won,” writes Vanguard’s founding artistic director Janeece Freeman Clark (who also directs this production), in the program. “It is that they imagined winning.”
“Newsies” began life as a 1992 film, inspired by a real 1899 strike. It featured songs with music by Alan Menken (whose long list of other credits include “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin”) and lyrics by Jack Feldman, and was not a big hit, though it is considered a cult favorite. Helping to propel “Newsies” to another level, Menken and Feldman co-wrote some great new songs for the stage show (which has a book by Harvey Fierstein), including the soaring ballad “Something to Believe In” and a clever patter song, “Watch What Happens,” which helps to bring Katherine’s smart but self-questioning character into sharp focus.
Another important song — “Letter From the Refuge,” sung by Jack’s best friend Crutchie when he is confined to a juvenile detention center — was added for the 2014 national tour and, as sung here by DJ Clark, provided one of the most intense moments of Act II.
KYLE WATKINS PHOTOGRAPHY
Sam Scriven, left, and Amron Salgado in “Newsies.”
Other standouts in the large cast include Sam Scriven as Davey, the privileged (he has parents) new newsie who becomes a valuable member of the group; Noah Akinyemi as his cute, supremely confident younger brother Les; Mychal Leverage as the sneeringly nasty newspaper distributor Wiesel (which the newsies pronounce as “weasel”); and Tahphanese B as Medda, the nightclub owner and chanteuse who becomes a valuable ally in the strike.
For a musical that premiered in the 21st century, “Newsies” seems quite old-fashioned, in every way: its vest-and-cap costumes, of course, but also the newsies’ slangy way of talking, and the creative team’s decision to make Jack a swaggering, lovable lug and Katerine a prim but plucky young woman who finds him detestable, at first, but grows to love him when she comes to see the real man beneath the tough exterior. (One imagines that if “Newsies” were written in the 1930s or 1940s, Katharine Hepburn would have gotten the role.) Even the show’s structure, and the style of its songs, seem more likely to remind people of classic musicals than than to create the impression that “Newsies” has something to add to the genre.
That is not a criticism, just a statement of fact: There is nothing really new about “Newsies.” But there is a lot to love here, anyway.
The Vanguard Theater Company in Montclair will present “Newsies” through June 28. Visit vanguardtheatercompany.org.
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