#jackcrutchie

[str4wb3rry-guy]

just watched the somerville high school production of newsies everyone has been talking about and oh my god.

the fight scene was so heartbreaking i cant. race holding onto jack as he panics saying "i cant go back" when he sees snyder? race pulling jack away telling him "we have to go" as jack tries to go after crutchie who is yelling "jack! race! please! youre right there!" while hes dragged off stage? fucking sobbing.

and santa fe ??? starting with jack going "no no no no crutchie no" ???? my heart has been shattered.

how the hell does a high school pull this off😭😭

[fulllmoonpills]

davey and crutchie laughing at jack in unison like the jack kelly fangirls they are

[callmeroygbiv]

FUCK this "crutchie depends on jack, jack protects crutchie" bs. give me the most ridiculously codependent friendship ever. they've lived together for years and don't know how to function without eachother. jack will sleep through the morning bell if crutchie isn't there to wake him up. jack always helps massage the pain out of crutchie's leg on bad days without him even having to ask. crutchie is there to help jack when he gets bad nightmares. they always make sure the other remembers to eat. give me unspoken favors and daily traditions. they can't live without EACHOTHER.

[ill-say-anything-i-hafta]

I wrote a Jack & Crutchie story for @loiteringandlurking re: his post about Jack who is an amputee.

One-Handed

In the circulation yard, Crutchie watches the new kid with the knotted-up shirt sleeve, watches how he holds the top of his bag open with his stump and then shoves the papes in one-handed. Crutchie knows that dance; he's got two good arms himself, but one of 'em's always occupied. It ain't as easy as it looks.

Kid says his name is Jack. He's straight from a factory job -- by way of the charity hospital on Hudson Street -- and can't hawk a headline for shit, but he can tie a bootlace real tight, a hard-won skill he's clearly proud of. First, he does up the dangling lace on Crutchie's bad foot. Then he tackles the other side for good measure. Double knots on both scuffed boots. And Crutchie lets him. For once, he don't care who sees him getting help because it makes the guy so happy.

Crutchie lets Jack follow him around, too. Teaches him the ropes. Why not?

::::

August in the crowded dormitory bedroom, hot and airless. Most of the boys have stripped to their undershirts, including Jack, sprawled out on his bottom bunk. Crutchie glances quickly away from the place where his right forearm abruptly ends, the scar still red and angry, and looks down at the sketch slowly developing. A nighttime scene in a desolate place, a wolf howling next to twin pine trees, mountains in the background, a crescent moon riding overhead. Jack scratches his pencil along the wolf's back. His neck flushes with frustration. He still ain't used to drawing with his left hand.

"Looks real good," Crutchie says quietly.

Jack spits out the rubber eraser he's been holding in his teeth. It lands on his pillow and Crutchie waits for him to say something mean. But he only uses the eraser to rub at some of the smudges. "Not every day you gets to see talent like this up close, huh?"

::::

Someone sends word that Jack's old man is doing poorly, so he stops by with a carton of cigarettes he bought. The place is a tenement on Mulberry, prostitutes coming and going. Jack insists that Crutchie wait on the stoop to protect their pile of newly bought evening Worlds. He's back in less than ten minutes, looking slightly out of breath.

"If he lives so close, how come you don't stay with him?"

"Well, I used to," Jack says, though that don't answer the question at all.

"He hit ya?"

"Nah, never." Jack seems to realize he's walking too fast and slows his pace. "Sorry. I think maybe ... I think seein' me makes him feel bad. So I just don't go by there too much."

Crutchie knows exactly what Jack means, and it makes him mad. He stops in the middle of the street to call the headline to an old woman in a kerchief. Jack waits, lighting a cigarette one-handed, while Crutchie juggles his crutch to make change. "You's still a kid," he says. "Your pops should be helpin' you out. If he ain't gonna do that, the least he could do is be proud of how good you is doin'."

"He don't need to be proud. I's just livin my life," Jack says. "Not everybody's gonna understand." He slings his good arm around Crutchie's shoulders. "But I got you."

::::

Ladies like Crutchie. They always have. They want to help him; they buy his papes and sometimes they gives him food and things. But it's girls that like Jack Kelly -- girls their same age.

And Jack seems to like them back, too. He'll pick someone out special to pass the time with, take her to the music halls -- he can sell a hundred twenty papes on a good day and always burns through his money -- draw pictures for her, tell her all about the Wild West. When the boys at Duane Street tease him, Jack tells them to shut up: this is the one.

Somehow, none of them girls ever is. But when it ends, Jack don't seem too heartbroken. Nothing bothers Jack, nothing Crutchie has ever seen.

Maybe he is the wolf in the picture. Maybe he is the moon.

Seems awfully lonesome.

::::

When Jack talks about New Mexico, Crutchie can't help but worry. He's been working to support himself ever since he was eight, but he's only ever done the kind of jobs people think a cripple can do. Who says anybody would hire guys like them them for farm labor?

Jack hooks his right arm over the top rung of the fire escape ladder and reaches his hand down to take the crutch. He says, "We'll just hafta show 'em, pal. We can find a way to do most anything we wants to. Can't we?" And he pulls Crutchie up behind him.

They stand together on top of the world. No mountains, no majestic pines. Just them and the buildings that crowd all around them, the landscape of the city where he was born. Life ain't fair; he's always knowed that. But in this moment, Crutchie thinks what Jack says might be true.

Because he ain't never felt sorry for Jack, not for a minute. Why would he? Maybe there is folks out there who won't feel sorry for him neither, who will see him for all that he is.

FIN.

[trash-capable-of-sentience]

call me controversial but mayhaps the reason for everyone going no homo to the max on jackcrutchie despite them promising to run away together, also known as the gayest thing one can do, is a little touch of ableism

[a-three-part-mini-opera]

holy... this is my third poll of the day. Anyway, I present:

I forgot jatherid, sorry kids

[princesstadashi]

[frogmanfae]

I seriously can't believe that they literally made the opening song Jack and Crutchie promising to run away together (fr the gayest thing ever AND TO SANTA FE OF ALL PLACES (Santa Fe was known for being "full of queers")) and still made it straight

[ethereal-bumble-bee]

Jackcrutchie for the ship bingo!

[incorrectmusicals]

jackcrutchie for the ask game

who is more likely to hurt the other? Jack. He has no filter.

who is emotionally stronger? Jack is good at pretending to be emotionally strong, but Crutchie is actually emotionally stronger because he has a healthier relationship with his emotions,

who is physically stronger? It’s a tie. Jack throws around a lot of papers and Crutchie spends all day every day carrying a significant portion of his weight with his arm.

who is more likely to break a bone? Jack. He puts himself into dangerous situations more often.

who knows best what to say to upset the other? Crutchie. Jack is easier to upset because his emotional stability is hanging on by a thread and Crutchie is good at brushing things off.

who is most likely to apologise first after an argument? Crutchie. Jack is too stubborn.

who treats who’s wounds more often? Crutchie. Jack gets injured more often.

who is in constant need of comfort? Both. And they both provide it.

who gets more jealous? Jack.

who’s most likely to walk out on the other? Jack. He tried to go to Santa Fe.

who will propose? Davey. Both Jack and Crutchie are waiting for the right time and Davey eventually drags them to the courthouse.

who has the most difficult parents? Neither one has parents.

who initiates hand-holding when they’re out in public? Crutchie.

who comes up for the other all the time? Crutchie.

who hogs the blankets? Crutchie.

who gets more sad? Jack.

who is better at cheering the other up? Crutchie.

who’s the one that playfully slaps the other all the time after they make silly jokes? Jack.

who is more streetwise? Jack.

who is more wise? Crutchie.

who’s the shyest? Crutchie. Jack has a bold personality.

who boasts about the other more? Crutchie. You see him do it to Davey.

who sits on who’s lap? Crutchie sits on Jack.

[str4wb3rry-guy]

if it were up to me newsies would open with jack and crutchie soulfully staring into each others eyes and singing about running away together to a place thats known to have a lot of queer people at the time.

...oh wait.

[superbatson]

thinking about jackcrutchie again kinda makes me giggle bc it's essentially the same thing as freebat

two city boys who live together and become best friends and pseudo-family and one's a bit of a rebel and the other's disabled (they both really hate bullies and team up against them) and both have really big dreams that seem really far out of reach and they're both super protective of each other and would do absolutely anything for each other

oh and they also both develop new friends and work together to take down a mean old guy and in the end, they save the day.

[callmeroygbiv]

I played crutchie in newsies, here are some of the things that happened

- the refuge was constantly referred to as "little boy jail." "I wish you were in king of new york" "can't, little boy jail." "yeah when i got rolled onstage for letter from the refuge-" "HAHA, LITTLE BOY JAIL!" 

- an ensemble member came up with the hypothetical question "if you were starving and had no food, would you eat crutchie's leg?" he then proceeded to ask every single cast member this question. I now know which newsies would eat crutchie's leg and could provide a list if asked. jack kelly would he told me HIMSELF. 

- someone accidentally called me crunchy instead of crutchie. various variations of that nickname ensued, my personal favorite being "cankle" 

- somebody put me on the spot and asked me to name my crutch. I panicked and said pickles. 

- jack kelly himself greeted me every rehearsal by pointing at me and saying "bum leg." what a wonderful friend. 

- the theatre we performed at had a covered area outside that could be accessed from backstage. this area had a sign over the door that said "area of refuge." three different people asked me to pose under it and took a picture of me. 

- our director had us practice the prologue together with her to guide us exactly two times, the first was in a practice room the size of a closet (i knocked a framed photo off the wall and my director and i blamed our jack immediately) and the second was in the theatre bathroom like ten minutes before the opening show (jack had to hold a mini piano so our director could play the notes for us. he looked very silly.)

- we had a medda wig that we didn't end up using. it was blonde and very long and jack put it on after the closing show. i begged him to sing hopelessly devoted to you. he didn't. :(

- Jack Kelly got sick the day before the show. It set off a chain reaction of understudies. our directors pumped so many concoctions and vitamins into him. he looked deathly ill and was sitting in the corner breathing through this crazy miracle cure device that looked So Scary but he magically got better it was beautiful.

- we aren't cowards like disney so when crutchie returns from the refuge jack and crutchie have a Big Hug and like five minutes before the closing show our director came up to me and was like “yeah i was thinking we should probably cut that, i don't know why they would hug like that, its almost a little weird.” and i was like “oh no i play crutchie like he’s gay don’t i”  (I did and it was a little bit on purpose) so i thought that she told our jack too, but she didn't. i was fully prepared to give him a fistbump and he almost knocked me over with the hug.

- "care to let this young man’s artististry shine a light into your closed doors?” -our pulitzer three times

- stress dreams. everyone had them. in mine i forgot to climb onto the scaffolding during the overture AND i forgot to bring my crutch onstage. our director had a stress dream that our jack showed up really late to rehearsal in a three piece suit.

 - sprace was canon. that's it. they called each other stage boyfriend offstage.

- entire cast swayed our arms back and forth during something to believe in. sometimes we turned on our phone lights like it was a concert.

- one time our davey lost his voice and wasn't singing during rehearsal so his understudy, who also plays race, was running back and forth between doing a weird voiceover over davey’s shoulder for all his singing parts and doing all his race parts. he was darting across the stage for the entirety of seize the day it was great. 

 - "And all the newsies run up the stairs, across the scaffolding, and down the other set of stairs and offstage.” “Ms Sarah I only have one working leg.”

- up until tech week we didn't have our newsies banner newspapers for once and for all, so during rehearsals for that number we got out the giant bin of stuffed animals. the number just was so much more beautiful when it was performed by a bunch of angry looking teenagers holding small stuffed animals. like ten of them were frogs (or supposed to be frogs. vaguely frog shaped.)

[girl-of-ink]

Why is half the jackcrutchie tag posts like "if you ship jackcrutchie don't interact bc it's evil" and the other half is like "I am taking the bold statement that jackcrutchie is not morally wrong but I don't personally ship it" like. Does anyone here actually ship jackcrutchie???? Please??????????

[hexmari]

opinion on jackcrutchie?

I don't really like it. I see Jack and Crutchie as brothers and in livesies Crutchie signs his letter as “Your Brother, Crutchie” so I feel it's weird to give them a shipping dynamic.

I wouldn't go as far as to say I think the ship is problematic because you can definitely present the ship in a way that doesn't give them a sibling dynamic.

But for me it's weird. Also due to the fact that I headcanon Crutchie to be younger. It's one of the ships I’d never draw or write for.

[artblockchronicassiconic]

Shipuary Day 21: Jack Kelly x Crutchie Morris (Newsies)

Fellas is it gay to share a rooftop home together, spending nights stargazing as you tenderly watch him talk about his dreams? Fellas?