Newsies

Newsies
Theatrical release poster by John Alvin
Directed by	Kenny Ortega
Produced by	Michael Finnell
Screenplay by	Bob Tzudiker Noni White
Starring	Christian Bale Bill Pullman Ann-Margret Robert Duvall
Music by	Alan Menken
Cinematography	Andrew Laszlo
Edited by	William Reynolds
Production company	Walt Disney Pictures
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release dates	April 10, 1992 (1992-04-10)
Running time	121 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Box office	$2,819,485

Newsies (released as The News Boys in the United Kingdom) is a 1992 American musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and directed by choreographer Kenny Ortega in his film directing debut. It is loosely based on the New York City Newsboys Strike of 1899 and features twelve original songs from composers Alan Menken and J.A.C. Redford. It stars Christian Bale, David Moscow, Bill Pullman, Robert Duvall and Ann-Margret. The film was an initial box office flop and received negative reviews at the time of its release, but later gained a cult following on home video.^[2] It was later adapted into a successful stage adaptation on Broadway that won two Tony Awards.

Plot

Seventeen-year-old Jack "Cowboy" Kelly (Christian Bale) is one of hundreds of homeless/struggling newsboys selling newspapers in 1890s New York City to support themselves/their families. Jack and his fellow "newsies" sell for Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, on the streets of Manhattan. The boys hit the streets each morning, get breakfast from nuns and head toward the paper distribution center ("Carrying the Banner"). One morning Jack meets David "Davey" Jacobs (David Moscow), who has joined the newsies with his younger brother, Les. Jack notices that David is smart and well-spoken and Les has a certain marketable cuteness, so suggests a partnership in order to sell more papers and earn more money.

Jack teaches the boys how to sell papers quickly and efficiently. David is shocked to learn Jack makes up headlines to make them more exciting, but Jack doesn't see it as a problem. Jack has a run-in with the sketchy Snyder on the street, flees along with David and Les, to Irving Hall, an entertainment hall owned by a friend of Jack's father, Medda Larkson (Ann-Margret), vaudeville star who performs in the hall. After leaving, they witness a particularly violent segment of the trolley strike. To escape the rioting, David invites Jack home to meet his family, including sister, Sarah (Ele Keats), with whom Jack becomes enamored. Declining to spend the night, Jack sings of his desire to escape to Santa Fe ("Santa Fe"). As newspaper tycoons Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst become more wealthy, their greed begins to spiral. To out-do Hearst, Pulitzer (Robert Duvall) inflates newsies' paper prices. The newsies find out the next morning. Angered at Pulitzer for taking money from them, though he is already immensely rich, Jack and David organize a strike along with the other outraged newsies, who all fear they will not be able to bear the additional cost ("The World Will Know").

Jack and Les confront Pulitzer personally, and the rest of the newsies deliver news of the strike to the other boroughs of the city hoping they will join the cause. A reporter named Bryan Denton (Bill Pullman) catches wind of the commotion and approaches David to inquire about the strike. Meanwhile, Jack and Les are promptly thrown out of Pulitzer's quarters. Denton takes an interest in the boys' story and takes them to lunch, telling them to keep him informed on their progress. Jack, David and Boots take the cause Brooklyn's notorious newsie Spot Conlon (Gabriel Damon). Spot is reluctant to join, feeling the Manhattan newsies aren't truly committed. Once back in Manhattan, Jack relays this to his newsies, who are crestfallen and fear the strike won't be successful without Brooklyn's aid. A group of boys strike until they have better pay.

At this, David riles up the newsboys ("Seize the Day"). With their confidence boosted they ambush the stand and destroy all of the papers in protest. Crutchie, whose nickname reflects his permanently injured leg, struggles to escape and is taken hostage by the Delancey brothers. Jack and David vow to rescue him and go to the Refuge that evening, where Jack locates Crutchie and discovers he was so badly beaten he can no longer walk on his own, which foils their rescue mission. The next morning the newsies, still bitter from the previous day's trials, try to ward off scabs purchasing papers to sell. The struggle turns violent, turns out to be a trap set by the Delanceys, causes the police to join and the violence escalates. Just as the newsies are about to be beaten down, Spot Conlon arrives with the Brooklyn newsies. United, the two groups overtake the police, and Denton is on the scene to snap a victory photograph for his story.

The newsies joyfully recount events at a nearby restaurant. Denton enters with a newspaper, where the newsies are the headlining story. The boys begin to dream of what they can achieve now that they've made the front page of the paper ("King of New York"). In order to capitalize on the victory, they hold a newsie rally at Medda's dance hall. Pulitzer learns of the newsies' intentions and devises to break it up, although he has no legal right to do so. Warden Snyder steps in and relays to Pulitzer that Jack is an escaped "convict" from the Refuge, and that is enough cause to stop the rally. Jack discovers the police are trailing him after Snyder drops by the newsboys' lodging house and opts to spend the night on David's fire escape to throw them off. In the morning, David's sister, Sarah, notices Jack and prepares breakfast for him, which they share on the roof. Jack tells her about his Santa Fe dream and wonders aloud if Sarah would care if he left.

The rally goes off ("High Times, Hard Times"), a success until the police barge in unannounced. Boys are mercilessly beaten, and though the newsies try to protect Jack he is captured and taken hostage. The other newsies, with no leader, are arrested and taken to court where they are fined five dollars, a fee none can afford. Denton steps in and pays all their fees. As the case proceeds, they discover Jack had been lying to them about his identity; Snyder, who happens to be a friend of the judge, testifies against Jack, revealing that Jack's real name is Francis Sullivan, his mother is deceased and his father is incarcerated. Jack is sentenced to four years of rehabilitation in the Refuge and taken to Pulitzer's private office while the other newsies meet with Denton who regretfully informs the newsies he was demoted from a strike reporter to his old job as a war correspondent. The newsies are heartbroken and angry, now believing that no one will tell their story. Meanwhile, Pulitzer strikes a deal with Jack, offering to waive his sentence and to pay him a salary if Jack works for him as a scab. Jack feels he has no choice, complies after Pulitzer threatens to arrest David and the other newsies, but also says he's looking out for himself and his dream.

Outside Pulitzer's quarters, David and other newsies wait for Jack's release to attempt an escape, but Jack makes them leave, knowing he'll endanger their welfare ("Santa Fe (Reprise)"). The next day, Jack shows up on the streets as a scab, and the newsies are horrified to the point of anger and violence. The Delancey brothers, looking for trouble, tell Jack they're going to attack David, and because Jack is under Pulitzer's watch, he can't interfere. The Delaneys instead go after Sarah and Les. David tries to save them but is badly beaten. Jack witnesses the events and steps in to ward off the Delanceys, though he knows he will be returned to the Refuge for doing so. After the Delancey brothers flee, David, Jack, Sarah, and Les find Denton, where they learn that the strike has not proved as effective as they'd hoped. The city thrives on child labor for businesses to function, therefore caring little for the protesting of a few hundred newsboys.

At this news, David and Jack realize they must recruit not only the newsies, but all child laborers in Manhattan. They turn the tables on Pulitzer and print their newspaper using Pulitzer's old printing press, which Jack now has access to in Pulitzer's basement ("Once and for All"). They distribute "Newsie Banner" to every working child in New York. As child laborers begin to discuss the injustices they join the newsies in the center of town, leaving the city's workforce at a standstill. Jack and David confront Pulitzer, who eventually gives in to the newsies' demands, realizing he was duped after implementing a city-wide printing ban on strike matters, which the boys easily defied. Crutchie and others who were captured are released from the Refuge, Snyder is arrested for keeping the Refuge a secret from the government and for mistreating its tenants, and Denton pulls Jack aside and tells him Governor Theodore Roosevelt has gotten word of the strike! Roosevelt is grateful Jack brought it to his attention and offers to give Jack a ride anywhere. Jack requests to be taken to the train yards to catch a train to Santa Fe.

The newsies are devastated to see him leaving. Jack returns, though, in Roosevelt's carriage. Roosevelt has convinced Jack he has much to live for in New York City. As the newsies celebrate his return, Sarah catches up to Jack and they kiss. The Newsies celebrate, Spot riding with Roosevelt in his carriage back to Brooklyn.^[3][4]

Cast

Production

Alan Menken's longtime collaborator, Howard Ashman, was too sick from AIDS to work with Menken on this film, and he would eventually die on March 14, 1991. Menken brought in lyricist Jack Feldman to help.

Music

Release

Newsies received mixed to negative reviews from critics and audiences and was a box office bomb, failing to recoup its $15 million budget.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film's average score is 40% based on 35 reviews. Newsies has since gained a measurable cultural fan base.^[2] Bale has acknowledged that while it was not a commercial success, its fanbase is surprisingly large, saying, “You say something bad about Newsies and you have an awful lot of people to answer to.”^[5]

Box office

The film grossed $2,819,485 domestically and ranks among the lowest-grossing live-action films produced by the Walt Disney Studios. Film critic and historian Leonard Maltin christened it Howard the Paperboy.^[6][7]

Home media

In 1992, the film was released on Walt Disney Home Video, while a collector's edition DVD was released in 2002. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray, as a 20th Anniversary Edition, on June 19, 2012.

Award nominations

Historical strike

The actual Newsboys Strike of 1899 lasted from July 20 to August 2. The leader of the strike was a one-eyed young man named Louis Ballat, nicknamed "Kid Blink", who spoke with a heavy Brooklyn accent that was often phonetically transcribed when he was quoted by newspapers. Kid Blink is featured in the film as a minor supporting character, while the role of strike leader is given to the fictional Jack "Cowboy" Kelly. Blink and another real-life newsie, Maurice Cohen, were the inspiration for Kelly. The actual strike ended with a compromise: the World and Journal agreed to buy back all unsold copies of the newspapers. The history of the newsboys strike of 1899 is told in David Nasaw's book Children of the City: At Work and at Play (Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1985; Oxford University Press, 1986).

Stage adaptation

Disney Theatrical Productions produced a stage musical based on the film that played at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey starting on September 25, 2011 through October 16. Starring Jeremy Jordan as Jack and Max Ehrich (Fenmore, The Young and the Restless) as an understudy for Jack.^[9] Newsies!: The Musical contains songs from the movie, as well as several new numbers.^[10][11] The songs "My Lovey Dovey Baby" and "High Times, Hard Times" were left out of the stage adaptation.

On September 19, 2011 the cast, accompanied by composer Alan Menken, performed "Seize the Day" and "Santa Fe" on The View.

The Paper Mill Playhouse version included new songs "The News Is Getting Better" that was replaced on Broadway by "The Bottom Line" and Don't Come a-Knocking" that was replaced on Broadway with "That's Rich", and the "I Never Planned on You/Don't Come a-Knocking" Medley and "Then I See You Again" sung by Katherine and Jack was replaced with "Something to Believe In". "Fansies" was the term dubbed to fans of Newsies during the Papermill Playhouse run of the show during Newsies Fan Day, where cast members of the movie and the original musical cast met with fans before the show.^[12][13]

The musical opened to previews on Broadway at the Nederlander Theatre for a limited engagement from March 15, 2012 to March 28, 2012 in previews and from March 29, 2012 to June 10, 2012 in its official engagement.^[14] This was later extended through August 19, 2012 after just the first weekend of previews and then extended again, this time to an open-ended run.^[15] They performed "King of New York" in the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The show went on to earn eight Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical, winning Best Choreography and Best Original Score.

It is currently on a U.S. tour and a separate Italian tour.

See also

• Newsboys Strike of 1899
• Union Organizer

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Newsies

• Newsies at the Internet Movie Database
• Newsies at Box Office Mojo
• Newsies at Rotten Tomatoes
• Film stills
• New York Newsies Awards
• Newsies - The Musical- at Playbill Vault
• Newsies on Broadway
• Broadway's "Newsies" on Yelp
• Broadway's "Newsies" on Foursquare