When the curtain came down on final dress rehearsal tonight, one thing was absolutely clear: The Saline High School Drama Club production of Newsies: The Musical is ready for performances before live audiences. [1-3]
In a word, this show is exceptional.
For those unfamiliar with the 1992 Disney motion picture upon which this play is based, Newsies is “based on the New York City newsboy strike of 1899. [4]
When young newspaper sellers are exploited beyond reason by their bosses, they set out to enact change and are met by the ruthlessness of big business.
The fundamental difference with a live staging is in its invitation to experience the story as it unfolds. You are here with the cast, crew, and creative visioning that brought everything together, in real time. [5]
In terms of bringing this to stage locally, the Ellen A Ewing Center is ideal for Newsies, which often calls for scenes with all actors present to advance the plot. Aesthetically, it’s nice to see this consistently balanced throughout, left to right — and often vertically through credible use of boxes, tables, and structural inference of a downtown building fire escape lattice. [6]
As promotional materials promise, Newsies: The Musical is defined by high-energy dance numbers, which the SHS Drama Club nicely executes and consistently varies, from tap to cleverly adapted glide. Range of presence is equally remarkable.
When dance numbers call for bring-the-house-down delivery, every member of the ensemble brings their A-game; when those same actors are called to limited service as background to important interactions between a more limited cadre in dialogue, they do so with great subtlety.
Newsies offers the opportunity to keep audiences hooked throughout a familiar the little guy stands up to power and in the end everyone can feel good about it through a series of vocal sets that, again, demonstrate the power of both the whole working in concert and individual solos. Given that this is our local high school, it’s tempting to imagine where several of these student cast members will go with their talents after graduation. [7]
As with so many SHS Drama Club productions, Newsies is also a delight for all the things the general audience member will likely never consciously notice.
For example, the curtain never falls between scenes; after the show opens, it will not come down again before intermission, then after, not until the closing.
For the orchestra, this provides an additional opportunity to shine — beyond exceptional accompaniment for vocals throughout — during property element changes that take place before your eyes on the darkened stage. And those set pieces themselves, while decidedly minimalist, are nonetheless powerful as cues to what will come next with the lighting.
It won’t take long to before you’ll figure that the simple dropping-in of an executive office suite window wall (with newsies’ humble congregating lattice still visible beyond) that the next nefarious plan is about to be hatched within.
Newsies: The Musical is set to play on stage at the Ellen A Ewing Center for the Performing Arts on the following dates and times, with tickets available at the door.
- Friday, February 28, 2020 with curtain at 7:30pm
- Saturday, February 28, 2020 with curtain at 7:30pm
- Sunday, March 1, 2020 with curtain at 2:00pm
Highly recommended.
References
- “Performance: ‘Newsies: The Musical’” Calendar (February 28, 2020) Saline Journal.
- “Performance: ‘Newsies: The Musical’” Calendar (February 29, 2020) Saline Journal.
- “Performance: ‘Newsies: The Musical’” Calendar (March 1, 2020) Saline Journal.
- “Newsies (1992)” IMDb.
- “Assistant Superintendent Steve Laatsch on value of SHS Drama performances that go beyond Saline High School” Dell Deaton (February 17, 2020) Saline Journal.
- “Hornet Light and Sound is set to debut 2019-2020 theater season at SHS on September 12 (no reason you should notice)” Dell Deaton (August 19, 2019) Saline Journal.
- “There is much more to Saline Community Education ‘Junior Theater’ than its stage performances this weekend” Dell Deaton (March 11, 2019) Saline Journal.
