REVIEW – ‘Newsies’ educates and inspires on The Woodlands Christian Academy’s stage

THE WOODLANDS, TX – The story of Newsies is one of overcoming incredible odds to eventually achieve success. The musical started off as a 1990s film that bombed at the box office, despite its cast of future stars – Christian Bale and Bill Pullman – and established film icons – Ann-Margaret, Robert Duvall – alike.

Unconvinced that a musical based on the 1899 New York Newsies Strike – kind of a true-life diet version of the plot of Les Miz – wouldn’t strike a chord with audiences, composer Alan Menken and lyricist Jack Feldman joined forces with theatre icon Harvey Fierstein to compose the book for a revised stage version, with some character shifts and song changes. After being workshopped in 2010, the show finally hit Broadway, and was subsequently nominated for several major awards, eventually winning some for choreography and music.

The musical has become a favorite amongst community theatres and school drama departments in both its full length format and a highly shortened ‘junior’ version. It’s the former version that was chosen to be the full-production launch of the new Fine Arts Building, newly christened The Benjamin Wells School of the Arts.

The 22,585-square-foot, one-story building is the latest addition to the school’s 40-acre campus. The facility accommodates fine arts specialties, including theatre, band, choir, dance, and the visual arts. Features include the largest black box theatre (4,225 square feet) in the Houston area with the ability to seat up to 300 in a variety of configurations, an art studio, a dance studio, a choir hall, a band hall, and multiple spaces for displaying student artwork, dressing rooms, storage areas, a lobby / reception area, a digital LED art board, and state-of-the-art technology to support a variety of performances.

Newsies is loosely based on the true circumstances of the Newsboys Strike of 1899 in New York City. A ragtag group of mainly orphans, led by Jack Kelly and his lieutenant Crutchie, eke out their meager livings by selling newspapers. Facing an insurmountable rise in supply-side prices, Jack – inspired by the family story of new newsboy brothers Davey and Les – decides to take on newspaper baron Joseph Pulitzer by organizing an impromptu union and then calling a general strike. Suddenly, pre-teens are thrust into the world of collective bargaining, supply-and-demand economics, the limits of fortitude when starvation is on the line, and a healthy dose of New York corruption that would put a Scorsese film to shame.

TWCA Fine Arts’ production is a mixture of the familiar and the bold, as envisioned by faculty member and director Palvin Williams. He makes great use of the split levels of the black box, the wider-than-expected stage floor space, and the LED board, which was integrated into both the plot as a visual aid as well as an effective scene-setter with snippets of typewritten articles about the characters and situations involved in the real-life event. Two rolling scaffolds and accompanying ladders, a table or two, and a handful of props gave no indication of anything less than a major production; never was there a fear of being misconstrued as minimalist.

The cast – efficiently split up between the main cadre of characters and a large ensemble – comes in at nearly six dozen, including a couple of special ‘cast members for a show’ auction winners who were seamlessly integrated and didn’t draw attention from the show. The ensemble, traditionally a part of any show that gets overlooked and undermentioned, made full use of the relaxation of the ‘all male’ rules of the film and earlier stage productions with a strong showing of multiple female dancers and chorus singers. The ensemble dancers, under the watchful eyes of choreographer Kirstin Stewart and student dance captain Madison Edone, slipped easily between jazz, modern, tap, and period steps with grace.

A strong presence in the auditorium, at times close to aurically dominating the action, was a live orchestra that played the tunes with abandon, fun, and flair. The mix of musicians, both student and faculty, coolly kept up with the necessitated live demands of music director Philip Sweger. The swiftly-changing sound levels – whether by the musicians or the large number of solo singers – certainly kept whoever was operating the sound board on their toes the entire performance. The orchestra’s pre-show stylings went far in setting the tone for the show to follow, and their post-show playoff music kept the show’s happy ending alive for hours after the curtain (metaphorically) fell.

Ninth-grader Brooks Crosby is surprisingly mature as Jack Kelly, believable in the archetypical ‘reluctant hero’ role as a rebel leader who would rather see quieter days in Santa Fe, with a strong voice in both speaking and singing to inspire those around him. Ryan Norus is excellent as Crutchie, never using the character’s physical lameness as a (pardon the pun) crutch to overplay the acting. He is particularly effective in the song ‘Letter From the Refuge.’

Landon Ousley and Ethan Werner, playing brothers Davey and Les, act like siblings who have had the ‘good life’ ripped away from them with a single industrial accident. A highlight of costumer Gretchen Wietstruck’s design is the subtlety of Davey’s wardrobe outclassing Jack’s but without adding an exclamation point to it.

Charlotte Smith gracefully overcomes any inherent awkwardness that would usually come from a teen actress playing a ‘va-voom girl’ burlesque/vaudeville theatre owner. With confidence in her voice and stride, she morphs from a one-joke ‘It Girl’ to a strike savior who opens her doors to those in need.

The true ingénue role, however, belongs to Natalie Moore, who plays one of the few completely fictitious characters, Katherine, a suffragette cub reporter with a family secret. Moore is able to alternately play Jack’s rival, antagonist, partner, support system, and love interest without skipping a beat. She also takes front and center of the stage for an extended tap routine that was pulled off without a hitch despite the floor-length costume she wore.

Liam Goudie opts for a stern, stoic, and sinister-turned-sympathetic route as Joseph Pulitzer, a magnate determined at the outset to outlast the strikers and then form a grudging respect for their leader. It’s rare an actor can turn an audience’s inner ‘boo’ to a cheer, but Goudie pulls it off.

Massive kudos go to the company players who flit between being gang-style newsies from different neighborhoods – Emilee Savage’s forceful leading of the song ‘Brooklyn’s Here’ threatens to bring a collective lump to the throat of the audience – to street people to scabs to prisoners. It’s obvious the choreography was catered to the particular strengths of dozens of dancers and gymnasts, and the width of the stage from near the front row makes it difficult to catch all the action at once. And, unlike many ‘professional’ productions I’ve encountered, all dancers kept in character with smiles affixed on their faces at all times.

The musical direction by Bret Parker, too, was a masterclass of taking dozens of voices of varying levels and abilities and getting the best out of them. In truth, this is one of the few high school productions I’ve enjoyed with actual multi-part harmonies in place.

A special callout needs to be extended to the handful of faculty members who took the stage themselves, including Jeremy Crump, Owen Howard, Aaron Marez, and Eric Wietstruck. Howard in particular was a strong, comforting, and believable presence as the last-character-to-appear Governor Teddy Roosevelt.

Such a large undertaking has the hallmarks of the possibility of disaster at every turn, but Director Williams, his assistant director Susie King, and the entire cast and crew overcome the odds to bring a strong performance and an enjoyable night for all ages.

Newsies runs at The Woodlands Christian Academy’s Benjamin Wells School of the Arts Black Box Theatre, 5800 Academy Way in The Woodlands at 6:30 p.m. on February 6, 7, and 8, with a special Saturday matinee on February 7 at 2:00 p.m. Upcoming performances for the Fine Arts program include the Lower School Talent Show, the Middle School and High School Dance Concert, a production of The Lion King, and the Fine Arts Extravaganza in May. Buy tickets and learn more at https://www.twca.net/warrior-life/arts/fine-arts-events-programs.