Seize the Day!

Papermill Playhouse - Millburn, NJ

In creating its newest screen-to-stage production, Disney dug deep into their vast film vault and pulled out Newsies, a notorious 1992 flop directed by Kenny Ortega and starring a young Christian Bale. The film was very poorly received and lost a ton of money. However, over the years, it not only gained a cult following, but the score (written by 8 time Oscar winner Alan Menken) managed to endure. The song Santa Fe, in particular, became a cabaret standard. It turns out that of all the films in the Disney cannon, Newsies is the one most requested as a stage show. Disney finally gave in to demand and has produced a 6 week "experimental" production at the Papermill Playhouse, the nation's top regional theater. As of this moment, there are no further productions planned beyond this one, but that's likely to change.

I'm the King of New York...

I actually saw the Newsies musical at the Papermill Playhouse two weeks ago, but I decided to wait and see what our resident theater buff Nick thought, before posting my thoughts here.

In short, I loved Newsies!  The musical was fun, and lively, and it really is a great adaptation of the movie.  I have had the song, "King of New York," stuck in my head for weeks now.  My comparisons for this show will obviously be based on the movie, but I would like to give a few details about how familiar I am with Newsies the movie.  My girlfriend's favorite movie in the entire world is Newsies, and in fact the first gift I ever bought her many many years ago was Newsies on DVD because she didn't yet own it.