GARDEN CITY — When summer is in full swing, tourist hot spots like Bear Lake become the place to be. Local eateries are packed, family traditions are renewed for another year, and when the sun goes down, summer stock theatre revives. Since 1977, Pickleville Playhouse has been making theatre that brings people back year after year, and their production of Disney’s Newsies: The Musical is sure to push that tradition into next summer as well. Whether it is your first encounter with Newsies, with music music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Jack Feldman, and a book by Harvey Fierstein, or your fiftieth, Pickleville has a production that will be hard pressed to beat for any community theatre.
So much of what works in the show stems directly from production elements that are iconic to the proshot version. Despite a much cozier space, director Kenzie Davis Kremin has drawn on the iconic rolling x-frames that serve as a multitude of locations in the New York City based story. The stage included a beautiful false proscenium of LED screens that allowed for dynamic and artistic scene transitions. Bodie Brower’s video design made the world more immersive in the snug space. The projected backgrounds were solid, though not spectacular, but the overall effect of the combined staging elements helped a small ensemble feel larger htan life. Kremin utilized strong pacing and staging techniques, including the use of aisles, to help the tempo and urgency of the show feel constantly high stakes. The direction made Pickleville Playhouse’s Newsies heart-pounding action from start to finish.
Newsies plays at Pickleville Playhouse through August 18 | PC: Bodie Brower.
The choreography from Sharli Davis King was also heavily drawn from the proshot version. In some ways, this was rewarding to the audience as iconic dance moves such as jump splits and the Newsies dancing on the newspapers were just like what worked so well on Broadway. At times, though, the overall dance struggled from a combination of factors. The performers were visibly winded after the first number and the high level dancing, which at some points was scaled back, was clearly a high bar for the cast. There also was just a lack of imagination to some of the choreography that didn’t transition well to the space where the non-dance moments were less carbon copied.
Where Newsies really earned some ink spillage was in the singing. I was particularly impressed by the strong vocals from Elijah Paruzynski who played Davey and Peyton Davis’s voice for Crutchie. The romantic leads of Jack (Sutton Kaylor) and Katherine (Tori Alder) were predictably solid, but I was jolted away from my other focus point when I heard Paruzynski and Davis sing for the first time. I was doubly delighted when Davis’ solo during Crutchie’s time locked up in the refuge was so sparkling that it just resonated through the space. Davis’ singing was filled with resonance and emotional strength each time he was on stage and he clearly stole the show. Paruzynski also stood out in his harmonies in “Seize the Day” and “Once and For All”. He blended, but his voice had a richness that elevated the already strong vocal ensemble.
Photo Credit: Bodie Brower.
The overall successes of Jack and Katherine depended heavily on how expectation matched performance. Kaylor’s Jack was clearly imitating some of the vocal qualities of Jeremy Jordan with the thick accent so intrinsic to the character. He was high energy and clearly the emotional leader of the cast on stage. Kaylor found great success in the moments that require Jack to be at fever pitches of anxiety, excitement and anger. The only draw back to these moments was the saliva build up that sounded like he needed to continue to pull spitl in. It’s part of the way Jordan portrayed Jack as well, and doing that kind of accent for two hours is rigorous, but it was distracting.
Alder, on the other hand, was entrancing because of how different she was than other performances of Katherine. Sometimes the first meeting of Katherine where she tells Jack that “a cheeky boy gets nothing” feels removed from the Katherine we meet later. Alder embraced that and clung to the tough as nails portrayal of Katherine for an extended period of time. It was that Alder made the choice that her seeing Jack’s art was the first indication that Katherine saw anything more to him than a grimy news boy. While she seemed almost icy at first, it became clear that was a facade in her powerful “Watch What Happens” rendition, and she continued strong for the whole show.
Photo Credit: Bodie Brower.
Other members of the ensemble delivered the good news as well. Jackson Clapier played Les in the July 1 performance, and he had enough ham to feed all the newsies for a week. Each of his lines was clear, strong, and emotionally motivated. Eliza Hall owned the space as Miss Medda and Stanton Allen was an excellent Pulitzer with his austere humor. Ryland Despain was such a good Roosevelt, I didn’t realize he was also a Delancy brother until I looked him up in the program. He carried the energy and tone of the older Roosevelt to match Allen’s Pulitzer which is not easy for young actors to do.
Newsies is an incredibly demanding show in terms of technical elements, physical performance, and singing chops. I walked out of Pickleville thrilled with the overall show and impressed by the humor that the actors had. It was very family friendly as nearly all of the profanity had been removed. I loved the community feel of actors meeting audiences and selling concessions in costume. Jack Kelly spends the whole story of newsies grappling with home, family and belonging, and Pickleville was such a wonderfully welcoming place. You might have to turn to page two to get the full scoop on this charming theatre, but it’s as much a part of the bear lake experience as swimming and raspberry shakes.
