Extra! Extra! The story behind Disneys surprise hit Newsies

August 01, 2024

“Newsies” flopped at the multiplex in 1992, so nobody could have guessed that the live- action Disney movie musical about scrappy street urchins would someday become a Broadway hit. After all, what did Disney know about putting on a show?

By now the original Mickey Mouse outfit knows so much that even this minor title is a feather in its corporate cap. The U.S. tour of “Newsies” lands at the National Theatre next week via Disney Theatrical Productions, a Broadway force created the year after the “Newsies” picture tanked. “Aladdin” is Disney’s latest big adaptation in New York, and Broadway’s top-grossing show for the season that ended May 24 was “The Lion King,” which pawed in a record $102 million. In its 18th season, that musical’s strength actually grew.

Naturally, not everything for Disney Theatrical has been a magic carpet ride. The can't-miss titles "Tarzan" (2006) and "The Little Mermaid" (2008) tanked on Broadway. Both were aggressively high tech in their swimming and vine-swinging designs, and both reportedly had budgets of $12 to $15 million.

Then there is the traditionalists’ gripe that Disney has wrecked Broadway, scrubbing Times Square squeaky clean while catering to a family-friendly touring trade. But the “theme park” charge is gradually being supplanted by grudging respect, even from critics.

"Disney recruits artists, not hacks; spends years developing its shows; and turns out product that may be formulaic but never looks cheap or half-baked," Time magazine declared last year. A New York Times reviewer admitted that the winning "Aladdin" "defied my dour expectations."

The surprise success of “Newsies” tells the story a different way. Disney wasn’t even trying to put this on Broadway; the company just wanted to create a version it could license to schools and local troupes. Yet in 2012 the comparatively small-scale show (reportedly $5 million) walked away with Tony Awards for score and choreography.

“Maybe it’s because it was the underdog,” says lyricist Jack Feldman. “But everybody at Disney was really rooting for it.”

THE LYRICIST

Alan Menken wrote the music for the songs in the movie “Newsies,” but without his longtime lyricist, Howard Ashman. Before Ashman’s death in 1991, the collaborators had supplied songs for the Disney renaissance animated pictures “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast.” For the “Newsies” lyrics, Menken brought in Feldman, best known at the time as lyricist of the Barry Manilow hit “Copacabana.”

Menken knew Feldman from musical theater workshops. “Newsies” gave Feldman a chance at his first full score.

“I only ever wanted to be a musical theater writer,” Feldman says from New York. “Alan and I wrote it more from a musical theater tradition than from a movie tradition. They were book songs — songs that moved the story along, illuminated character or relationships. So it wasn’t as big a jump of the imagination to think of it onstage.”

Why was Disney even trying a stage musical of “Newsies” and not, say, “Hercules” or “Snow White”? Because of home video and Disney Channel reruns, a fan base had developed around the upbeat picture, and requests for a stage version that schools and local companies could produce were “overwhelming,” according to Disney. In the movie, based on the 1899 newsboy strike in New York, a young Christian Bale played a feisty kid named Jack who stands up to Joseph Pulitzer (Robert Duvall) when the publisher hikes the newsboys’ fees to carry “papes,” as they call the bundles of newspapers. Bill Pullman played an idealistic reporter.

The stage adaptation took several years to lift off, finally getting its spark when Harvey Fierstein signed on to write the show's book (something he won a Tony for in 1984 with "La Cage Aux Folles"). Menken and Feldman had written the movie's songs quickly because everything had to be pre-recorded. They had more time for the stage version, which blossomed from a tryout reading in December 2010 to a full production at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse the next fall.

“It was all done with great patience and care,” Feldman says. “The production we did at Paper Mill was really just meant so everyone could see it on its feet, so we knew that what we sent out to be licensed actually worked. The rest was a genuine surprise to everybody.”

The New York Times called that New Jersey test a "crowd-pleaser" and a "canny stage transformation of Disney's 1992 big-screen misfire." The review also noted "Jack Feldman's rousing lyrics."

The difference between Disney then and now is “huge,” Feldman says. “I found the movie people at the time very intimidating; it was very corporate. Disney Theatrical is based in New York. It’s not autonomous, but it is its own operation. It felt more like a little family of people.”

THE CHOREOGRAPHER

Like Feldman, choreographer Christopher Gattelli got his break with “Newsies.” Also like Feldman, he won a Tony.

“I always knew what I would do with this,” says Gattelli, who adds that he was around the age of the newsies when the movie came out. (He loved it.) “I saw it as 20 Billy Elliots up there. They’re all fighting. They’re all individuals. And they all have character names — it’s not a chorus.”

Gattelli’s credits before “Newsies” were mostly for musical staging and assisting; this was his first full chance to make the dances. The high-energy choreography has drawn raves on the road: “A fabulous showcase for very young male dancers,” came the word from Chicago, and “Boy, how they can dance” in San Francisco. It underscores the fact that unlike most Disney musicals, this one is not driven by spectacle.

“I call the guys ‘the fireworks,’ ” Gattelli says from New York. A staple maneuver in auditions is a demanding “double tour” — jumping from a standstill and spinning in the air twice. Besides the intensive dancing, the lively newsboys have to race up and down a three-story set. “When you have that onstage,” Gattelli says, “you don’t need anything else.”

Another hallmark of the cast: youth. “They’re babies,” the choreographer says, guessing that most are younger than 21.

For Gattelli, the idea of “Newsies” as a stage musical always made sense, even if the movie didn’t click with audiences the first time around. “There’s something about seeing that energy and determination,” he says. “It just makes so much sense to be live, and see the blood, sweat and tears in front of you.”

THE STAR

Before taking on the role of Jack Kelly last fall in the “Newsies” U.S. tour, Dan DeLuca’s regional acting gigs typically lasted only three weeks.

“They took a chance on me,” DeLuca says from a recent tour stop in Nashville. (The Broadway production closed last year after more than 1,000 performances.) “I’m so honored to have the Disney stamp of approval.”

DeLuca is an unapologetic Disney nut. The Disney renaissance animated movies introduced him to musicals. The sunny attitude suits him.

“I love the music, the movies, the parks,” says DeLuca, who recently turned 23 and — wait for it — just vacationed at Disney World. “Everything they stand for, I’m so on board.”

The eight shows each week are physically demanding — DeLuca has calculated that he burns 906 calories per performance. The company helps with the grueling schedule by keeping a physical therapist on hand. (They used to be hired city by city, but DeLuca says a therapist now travels with the show.)

Young actors are dying to work for Disney, DeLuca says, which can’t be a surprise for a generation weaned on such omnipresent tunes as “Be Our Guest,” “A Whole New World” and “Under the Sea.” But Feldman and Gattelli also single out the company’s cool, professional tone and willingness to take risks.

“They changed the game with ‘Lion King,’ I think,” Gattelli says of Julie Taymor’s puppet and ritual extravaganza. “It was such an unexpected take on a very popular movie, and it gave them a place.”

Bringing in a dark horse like “Newsies” only shines up that reputation.

“They gave the people what they wanted,” DeLuca says. “And the people are loving it.”

If you go

Newsies

National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. 800-514-3849. www.thenationaldc.com.

Dates:Tuesday through June 21.

Prices:$48-$108.

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