How an underdog movie became a sold-out, hit musical
The film version of Newsies bombed, but has since soared onstage. It opens in Toronto on Wednesday
NEW YORK— Here’s a story about a second chance for a show about giving people second chances.
April 1992. My family goes to see the latest Disney movie musical, Newsies, about a strike in 1899 by street kids in Manhattan who sold newspapers. It was tuneful and charming, and it starred a very young Christian Bale in the lead.
But there were only 22 other people in the Toronto movie theatre. And this was opening week. Fade out.
Fade in. It’s September 2012 and we’re now in New York City to see the recently opened stage incarnation of Newsies. It’s still tuneful and charming, and now a young Jeremy Jordan is playing the lead.
One big difference. There’s a sold-out audience of 1,232 people and that’s how it stayed for the 1,004 performances it played on Broadway. And now it’s coming to the Ed Mirvish Theatre, starting Wednesday, for what promises to be a red-hot summertime run.
So what happened in the 20 years that elapsed between Newsies the flop movie and Newsies the hit musical? A lot.
“I think it’s one of the strangest stories in show business history,” laughs Thomas Schumacher, the president of Disney Theatrical Group, in his office on top of the New Amsterdam Theatre, where Florenz Ziegfeld once had his Rooftop Garden Theatre.
“When Newsies opened on Broadway, we grossed more in the first month than the film did during its entire run in the whole world.”
“That’s what you call one crazy turnaround,” says Schumacher. “You’ve got to remember how amazing the real life story is.
“These kids were the Huffington Post of their day. They decided what the most important headline was and shouted it out on the street. No wonder they endured.”
The man who was front and centre for both stages of the project’s development is composer Alan Menken, the winner of eight Oscars. His Aladdin tried out in Toronto in 2013 and his version of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is enjoying a successful run in Montreal.
“The idea was to first do it as a nonmusical film,” says Menken from his studio just north of New York, “but I started writing songs for it and they just burst off the keyboard in the most amazing way. The next thing we knew they were fast-tracking it into production.”
But Newsies was a live-action film and, although Disney was riding high with its musicals, they were all animated, including Menken’s big hits The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.
“I honestly don’t believe they had done a live musical on that scale since Mary Poppins (in 1964),” says Menken.
“I think they didn’t know what to do with it.”
In fact, Menken recalls Jeffrey Katzenberg, then chairman of the studio, shaking his head on the first day of filming and saying, “What have you done to us, Menken?”
“The studio kind of hedged their bets,” says Menken. “It was a pretty low-budget film, and nobody was prepared with promotion and marketing for it. So when it opened and bombed despite some very good reviews, nobody got hurt that bad.”
Except the fans of the film, who were legion.
“Let me tell you a personal story about the film,” says Schumacher. “My nephew was 8 years old when it opened. He loved it and asked me for a poster, which the marketing department were all too happy to give me.
“He hung it on his bedroom wall until he went away to college. Now he’s a labour leader who organizes hotel workers around the world and I think that all started with Newsies.
“Why do people love Newsies so much? Maybe it’s the message . . . Or maybe it’s because everybody has affection for the underdog.” ALAN MENKEN COMPOSER
“You’ve got to remember something. This is all based on a true story. When Kid Blink threw his papers down at Newsies Square in New York in 1899, it was a dramatic event. A group of kids changed the entire face of the American labour movement. Child labour laws came into being because of this.”
That’s the kind of story that’s in the sweet spot for Harvey Fierstein, the Tony Award-winning author and director behind many hits, including Toronto’s other smash hit of the moment, Kinky Boots.
“I saw Newsies when it came out and I loved it,” says Fierstein, on the phone from his Connecticut home.
“Why wouldn’t I love it? It’s an underdog story and I’ve been rooting for the underdog all of my life.”
But Fierstein had nothing to do with the original Newsies, except being a fan, and only got involved with the stage musical by chance.
“I had Harvey come up to my place to talk about working on another project, but nothing ever happened to it, because as soon as he walked into my studio, he saw a copy of the Newsies DVD on a table and said, ‘Oh God, that’s what we ought to do together,’ ” remembers Menken.
Schumacher had wanted a stage version of the film “because amateur and school groups kept begging me for it and I figured, ‘Why not?’ But once Harvey got involved, it took on a whole life of its own.”
“This was one terrific story,” bellows Fierstein. “You got kids fighting for their rights, going up against a corrupt establishment, learning to empower themselves and everyone around them. That’s what all my work is about. OK, nobody’s in drag in this one, but you can’t have everything.”
So Schumacher put it into rehearsal, but with a carefully designed set that could tour easily. Broadway was never the goal.
“We tried it out at the Paper Mill Playhouse,” he says, speaking of a cosy New Jersey theatre not far from Manhattan. “And it simply exploded.
“But I still wasn’t going to take it into New York until Jude Law suddenly backed out of a show that was supposed to play the Nederlander Theatre, leaving it empty. My good friend Nick Scandalios (Executive vice-president of Nederlander Producing) saw Newsies in New Jersey and asked me to bring it in right away.”
The rest is history. Menken, who won a Tony Award for his score, looks back on the whole thing philosophically.
“Why do people love Newsies so much? Maybe it’s the message. Maybe it’s the high energy dance and exuberance. Or maybe it’s because everybody has affection for the underdog. And Newsies sure began as an underdog. That’s a strong motivator for fans.” Newsies will run at the Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria St. from July 8 through Aug. 30. For tickets, go to mirvish.com or call 416-872-1212.