OREM — Since its release as a stage musical, Newsies has become the most beloved show in Utah – a nearly ubiquitous offering that many venues, including SCERA, have staged multiple times. This summer, SCERA is revisiting the show on its massive outdoor stage – a production with all the singing, dancing and heart that audiences crave in the musical.
The premise is (very) loosely based on a historic newsboys strike, and features the plight of a dashing young union leader, Jack Kelly, fighting, as all strikers do, against “the man.” The antagonist in this case is newspaper baron Joseph Pulitzer, played with a gravelly snarl and detailed characterization by Mike Handy.
Alan Menken’s legendary score (with lyrics by Jack Feldman) contains rousing, crowd pleasing numbers that stir the spirit, including “Seize the Day,” “Carrying the Banner,” and “The World Will Know.” Harvey Fierstein’s book smartly adds a strong female character, reporter Katherine, combining love interest and reporter into one. The musical adds and improves upon numbers from the original film, including “That’s Rich,” “Watch What Happens,” and “Brooklyn’s Here.”
Photo by Rachael Gibson
This production starts with a stage that feels as big as the Big Apple in which the musical takes place – with three staircases, multiple shop fronts including a barber shop, various painted advertisements for Coke, dog food, and rudimentary automobiles, and a runway across the back. The stage is a perfect fit for the massive cast of dozens, and its space felt well-used in the production.
This cast of newsboys and girls are not children at all, but young adults who can do advanced tumbling, lifts and dance techniques. When they’re not dancing, the chorus demonstrates excellent blend, pitch, diction, and cut-offs, especially toward the beginning of the show in numbers like “Carrying the Banner.” Musical director Christian Wawro really trains the vocals of this cast to soar.
Choreography by director Brodee Ripple includes couple work, spins, and extensions galore. The choreography, which combines tap, ballet, and hip hop is lively and fun – including splits both high and low. In the performance I attended, the audience started “whoo-ing” the impressive dance moves as the night went on.
Photo by Rachael Gibson
William Madsen gives a unique take on protagonist Jack, with less swaggering hamminess and theatricality than other productions, and more of a “lowkey” confidence and even, deliberate twitchiness. Dialect-wise, Madsen sounds like the classic Jack audiences have come to expect, and while some notes could benefit from additional breath support, Madsen nails the famous endnote at the end of “Santa Fe” in all its glory.
Gage Gillette demonstrates why Davey is the show’s best written character, growing from shy and entitled to a rousing strike leader himself. Davey has a lovely character development, and Gillette authors it wonderfully – his posture, movements and dialect fit the character, and he has a good voice. While there are a couple areas for improvement with Gillette’s dance moves, he gives an overall outstanding performance.
As Davey’s little brother Les, Porter McCormick also gives a stand-out performance – frankly one of the best I’ve seen of the character. Plucky and believable, McCormick is capable of authentically commanding the stage despite being the youngest of the cast. Loud and confident, McCormick really puts himself in his lines, and it pays off for everyone watching.
Photo by Rachael Gibson
Mia Schoebinger as Katherine demonstrates smart storytelling in her line deliveries and nice vocal entrances into longer notes. While it was difficult to review her main solo number, “Watch What Happens,” due to a loud family in front of me, Schoebinger is definitely a force to be reckoned with. Active children also caused one entertaining moment of the show, when a toddler ran onstage during Crutchie’s big number, only to be chased down by a father.
The production approached the villain Snyder the Spider with more tact and sensibility than I had seen before. Instead of a cartoonish bad guy, Matthieu Kohl’s character carries more of a straightforward mortician look. This different take on his character showcases the nuance of Scera’s production.
Ripple moves actors around the stage tactfully and the blocking feels deliberate to the musical. A couple nice directorial touches were Pulitzer and Katherine’s interaction during his line “Too bad you’ve no family / but you can’t have mine” and the newsies’ reaction to Jack and Katherine’s kiss at the end. On the other hand, some of the humor of the show could have landed stronger, and while there was some fine fight choreography, some group formations in action scenes felt forced at times.
The sound design by Chase Elison is a production highlight, and the microphone set up is on a professional level. Lighting by Elizabeth Griffiths is appropriate and generally subdued with some gobo coverage – most interesting are the four streetlights on the stage. Earth tones with pops of jewel tones dominate Deborah Bowman’s costuming, which, along with near-universal newsboy caps, fit the street urchin characters. It is cool how the slightly more middle class Davey’s costume featured a classier sea green; and Medda Larkin’s gigantic pink beehive is another costuming highlight.
Some weaknesses do creep into the final few group numbers of the show starting with “Once and For All”. The chorus, which has such fabulous blend, tone and cut-offs earlier in the production seems to lose cohesion, perhaps due to being more spread out across the mammoth stage than usual. Dancers also seemed to lose some of their choreography memorization. However, all of these missteps are only a small part of a fantastic production.
Overall, SCERA’s production of Newsies is worthwhile family entertainment. With strong singing, dancing, and acting, it’s worth seeking out for an evening’s entertainment at the beginning of summer.
