Performance Date – 2 October 2011 (Papermill Playhouse)

     I’m very happy to report that the first “official” version of the stage adaptation (Harvey Firestein) of this highly discussed new work  is in good shape and was very much worth a trip out to Millburn, NJ and the well-respected Paper Mill Playhouse.

The inspirational tale of the child labor work force of New York City in the late 1800’s which had a film adaptation in the early 90’s (scored by Alan Menken at the height of his craft) is often discussed by musical theatre aficionados around the world and many have anticipated the arrival of this production.  The story has all the makings of great theatre, struggle, uprising, characters on an emotional brink, a rowdy ensemble of “rough-and-tumble” street rats and the ever present battle between Right and Wrong.  The creative team of this production have made a great effort to stick to the film source material only adding in plot elements, characters and songs that are intended to push the story along all the while giving fans of the original film all the great ensemble numbers and moments that they expect to be a part of the stage adaptation.  That being said, there are still some kinks to be worked out before a successful Broadway transfer.

Overall, a few key elements were misfires in this production.  The vocals throughout seemed very weak, it was as if so much attention was paid to the very physical movement and dancing and very little attention paid to the overall sound that was to be the end product.  I am not a fan of a vocal “click-track” being used in a live production, but the utilization of pit singers never hurt a good dance number or two.  This would have helped a great deal, especially since there were some obvious attempts to improve the already fantastic vocal arrangements that were written 20 years ago.  Secondly, Mr. Firestein saw fit to add some elements and characters to this production, mostly all were very effective tools within the storytelling, but a few key scenes seem to be placed in awkward positions throughout the arc of the story (very reminiscent of SpiderMan 1.0).

To begin with, the artistic team has decided to utilize Jack’s theme song (“Santa Fe”) as a prologue, which I feel is somewhat inappropriate.  Not only does it serve a better function as character development and a possible bonding moment later in the script, but it doesn’t really give the audience any information crucial to the telling of the story.  The actual opening of the film (“Carrying the Banner”) is just that; an opening, and I feel that it sets the mood and driving action of the piece rather nicely without too much adjustment.  Another flaw in scripting comes with the first musical addition to the piece being sung by the character of Joseph Pullitzer.  “The News is Getting Better” is not a strong song, by any definition and a rather uncomfortable character for the audience to hear break into song in the second scene of the show.  Although the scene is necessary for the plot and to introduce some key characters, I just didn’t feel that it was the right song to convey the information.  The following scene is also somewhat disappointing.  Understandably, there is no female ensemble, but to attempt a “vaudevillian showgirl” number with only three showgirls on a more or less bare stage just seemed to fall short of what is expected from a story set in a time period cresting on the height of vaudeville. Also, I would like to point out that the character of David makes a speech in the theatre scene that seems to be far above what his character should be comfortable with at the time that he makes it.  A better arc for his character has to be established.

The ensemble does a great job of keeping the piece moving forward and keeping the audience interested in what is going to happen next.  Some great vocal moments are to be heard from the leads, Jeremy Jordan is clearly a rising star and one to watch for years to come, I’m assuming.  Katherine Plumber is knocking her role out of the park and adding a great deal of “heart” to this already heart-felt story.

I’m very interested to see what has been adapted from this production to the upcoming Broadway opening.  From all of us kids that started out in musical theatre by the help of this story… we wish you the best of luck on Broadway, NEWSIES!!!!