#my 92sies thoughts

[orphanensemble]

this is so funny he just left

[saysflora]

I really hope Mush Meyers knows that I would commit unspeakable acts of violence for him

[shsl-fander]

Something I love about Javey is making them both think the other is out of their league. They both are convinced they couldn't possibly deserve one another and yet they're so in love.

Jack thinks Davey is smart and more sophisticated than him and has a real family so why would he want " a mess" like him when he could get so much better.

Davey thinks Jack is so confident and cool (and hot) and he admires how all the newsies easily listen to him. Jack is a natural born leader and has this energy to him that everyone likes. Davey can't imagine what its like to be like that and he thinks Jack would never want someone awkward like him.

And yet they match each other so perfectly and are exactly what the other needed. Davey needed to learn how to truly be himself and let go, hang out with the other newsies and become less uptight. Jack needed someone like Davey to understand him and talk to him logically and bring him down to earth instead of daydream land.

[we-are-inevitable]

am i in the frame from your point of view? // javid

"Katherine Pulitzer."

"David Jacobs," Katherine says, not even looking up from the Essential Journalism textbook she's currently hunched over. She looks like hell, her red curls all over the place, chunky-framed glasses perched on the tip of her nose, and she's wearing an old navy-colored hoodie that reads Trinity School on the front. Dead week has claimed another life, or something. David thinks she could use a break.

Which is why the next words that come out of his mouth, just three seconds after he very abruptly sat in front of her at her table in the library, are: "Remember how I told you I was swearing off men?"

This catches Katherine's attention, clearly, because she looks up at him, her blue ink pen falling limp to the table. "Oh, David, no. Who is it?"

"Look," He starts, defensive. He takes a breath as he pushes his own glasses up, absentmindedly dusting stray cat hair off his own plain black hoodie. "It's not my fault. I say I'm swearing off men, and suddenly my dream guy walks into my life. I'm dying."

"Who is it?" Katherine asks, shifting in her seat; she brings one knee to her chest and tucks the other foot underneath, folding herself like a pretzel in the uncomfortable wooden chairs of the library. "Do I know him? Do you know him? Or is it another barista?"

David rolls his eyes. "He's not a barista, I don't think," He says, then glances away for a fraction of a second; when he looks back, she already has a knowing look on her face. "And yeah. You know him."

Katherine raises a brow expectantly. "Who is it?"

And David regrets starting this conversation now, a little bit, because he doesn't want to admit it. He wanted to string her along a little. Wanted to tease it out, but she's looking at him like she'll strangle him at any moment if he doesn't tell her, and David knows his sister well enough to know that she only dates girls capable of violence. Katherine fits the bill.

Which is why, when he starts speaking again, he braces for impact before she can try anything. "You can't expect me not to fall in love with your hot friends, okay? It wasn't—"

"Oh my God!" She yells, a little too loud for the library's second floor. "You little slut! You like Jack?!"

"It's a pipe dream," He says immediately, throwing his hands out to his sides dramatically. "He's— okay, he's cute, alright? I can't help it!"

Katherine is grinning wildly at him now, textbook forgotten as she raps her hands against the wooden table. "You like Jack! I knew it! I knew you would like Jack!"

"Oh, please, no you did not," David says with a scoff.

"Uh, yes I did," She says, shooting him a look. "He's, like, exactly your type, Dee."

"I don't have a type."

"He's a goofy beefcake with brown eyes and muscles and curls, and he makes you laugh, and he listened to you talk about your mom's dog, and—"

And to her credit, she keeps listing off things, and to David's chagrin, she's not wrong.

When Katherine mentioned a party at her apartment, David was all for it. Despite his typical "I don't like people" front, David did enjoy the company of the six friends he could tolerate- Katherine, Charlie, Racer, Albert, Spot, and Sarah. Well, five friends, technically, since he's known Sarah since she was thirteen minutes old and he was, well, zero minutes old. Still. Six people.

And then Katherine said there would be a seventh.

A guy named Jack.

The lore there, she explained, is that all of them knew each other from community theater back in the day. Jack, Kath, Charlie, Race, Al and Spot- they've always ran in the same circles- outside of school, at least. Apparently, Kath's dad wasn't too happy that he was shelling out thousands of dollars for private school and she decided to make friends elsewhere, but there was really nothing he could do. Sarah was added to the group when she and Kath started dating in freshman year of college, and David was added not too long after that, but until now, Jack has just been... a story. A story about this funny guy with a megawatt smile and a heart of gold, who packed up and went to college in Santa Fe for college. He's been in town a few times since then, apparently, but David had never met the guy until Katherine's birthday party last weekend.

And he can't stop thinking about him.

Literally. David isn't an artist by any means, but thinking about this Jack Kelly guy- this 5'9 guy with with rich brown skin and bright eyes, with the laugh of a lion and a smile that made David want to throw up- has made David want to etch his "I go hiking in the mountains and bathe in the rivers" body in stone and write a symphony just to capture the sound of his voice singing Happy Birthday purposely off-key. It's maddening, and—

"Hellooo? Earth to David?"

David blinks, then groans and takes his glasses off, haphazardly dropping them in a clatter onto the wooden table as he rubs his eyes with the heels of his palm. "I'm fucked, Kath."

She cackles, loudly, like David's misery is the funniest shit she's ever seen. "Oh, you poor thing. Didn't he follow you on Instagram at the party?"

David responds with another guttural groan.

He can practically feels Katherine roll her eyes. "Okay, dumbass. Text him."

"He's your ex," David says, like this is a crucial detail, like she should hate the fact that David is into him on the basis of we used to date and it's fucked up that you're telling me how much you like my ex, like Katherine and Jack weren't lounging on top of each other all weekend, like they don't FaceTime every other day, like they're not as close as can be. "And he's in fucking New Mexico. I'm not getting attached."

"He's coming back next month, y'know," Katherine points out. She picks her pen back up, twirling it between her pointer and middle finger. "He's graduating a semester early. Next weekend, actually, and then he's moving back."

David finally removes his hands from his face. "You're shitting me."

"I'm not! I swear it." Katherine picks up her phone, and David watches as she swipes through her text messages before sliding the phone across the table. "See? He's moving back on the twenty-third. He's surprising Medda for Christmas."

"Oh, fuck," David frowns. "That's cute. He needs to stop being cute."

"He's moving in with Charlie, so, I mean," She shrugs, "you'll be seeing him a lot soon."

"You're making this worse."

"He has a job lined up already. School counselor for one of the middle schools."

"He likes kids?"

"Loves 'em."

"Fuck me," David sighs, rubbing his forehead as he slides the phone back to Katherine. "So, you're saying I have two weeks to get over him?"

"No, David," Katherine says, deadly serious despite the smirk on her face, "I'm saying you have two weeks until your future husband is permanently in your vicinity."

"He doesn't like me like that," David says, crossing his arms. "You're being a bad friend. You're completely feeding my delusions."

Katherine purses her lips and grabs her phone again, silent. David gulps as he leans forward, trying to watch her screen through her glasses; he can tell she's scrolling through her photos, but after a few moments, she stops. When she slides the phone back, David sees an image on the screen.

An image of a video from her birthday. Paused with David and Jack on screen. David's eyes are wide, and his mouth is open and his lips are quirked, and his eyebrows are raised and his hands are splayed in front of him, and he's obviously mid-sentence about something important (or not important; he doesn't remember much after his fourth drink, but remembers talking about Pokémon and Sabrina Carpenter and the fall of the Catholic church, so the possibilities are truly endless).

Despite the animated, ugly, passionate look on David's face, though, what draws his attention is Jack.

Jack, sitting sideways on the couch with his elbow on the back and his cheek resting against his palm. Jack, his other arm draped, barely holding his bottle of beer. Jack, his gaze soft, staring at David like he's completely enraptured in whatever the fuck he's saying.

David takes in a deep breath, slides the phone back to Katherine, and says, "I want him."

She just grins and responds, "You got two weeks, tiger. This is so happening."

[make-friends-with-the-rats]

Okay. I've referenced this map of 1890s NYC before but in case you're not familiar:

Yellow triangle - Newsies Square and Park (Newspaper) Row Green dot - 9 Duane Street Lodging House (Newsboys' Lodging House) Blue highlighted street - Baxter Street, the location of the Jacobs family's tenement apartment If you're interested in seeing more Newsies locations on this map, click here!

With this map in mind, the lodging house and the Jacobs family are located potentially within as little as 5 minutes walking distance from each other according to Google maps.

So while we don't know exactly what routes Jack and David would take on a normal day of selling, we do know that it wouldn't be out of the way and might even be practical (depending on which direction they're coming from) for one to walk the other home.

Now consider: because they live so close together, and neither is very fond of "being the girl," walking each other home becomes a competition where they get to one place and then loop around and go back to the other all the while attempting to psyche each other out until one boy finally swallows his pride and begrudgingly goes inside to his respective bed.

Or they both end up passed out in David's bed after Esther coaxes them in for dinner on loop number twenty-seven.

Whichever comes first.

[nyx-thedragon]

just had the random thought of Spot Conlon calling Jack Kelly “nimble” as a nickname sometimes. cuz of the “jack be nimble, jack be quick” joke/comment he made in 92sies

thoughts?

[thatoneandlonelyemo2005]

Mr. Kloppmann isn't the same after he sees his boys come home from the courtroom. They really aren't the same, either. But Dutchy doesn't miss the way Mr. Kloppmann counts them three times going to a fourth. Or the way he wants them all to sleep down stairs that night so he can keep a better eye on them.

But they are still missing Jack. Even if that damn boy ran him crazy sometimes. He hoped he was okay. Everyone really wouldn't speak about what happened. Mostly they are wrapped up with their loved ones or a little.

Dutchy stays close to him, and Specs is right beside him. "We're okay, Mr. Kloppmann." Mr. Kloppmann takes a deep breath. "I know, just worried about Jack."

Dutchy hugged him, "He'll be alright." Even if he was lying to himself

That night wasn't as peaceful as it used to be. It was as if they were lost. Kloppmann kept counting till he couldn't anymore. Still missing one. Dutchy even counted once for him. Promised him they are all there.

"We'll be okay, Kloppmann." He whispers, seeing the old man finally shut his eyes. "We'll all be here in the morin'."

[anxiousbrazilianstuff]

So I was thinking, Jack is an artist, we already know that, but art is not just visual, so I was imagining him writing little poems for Davey or Kath (or both, really), I think we should explore Jack's artistic side more beyond paintings

[ihateswansmorethananything]

When I was 9 I heard the song “the world will know” from Newsies for the first time without any context. Mind you my English was HORRENDOUSLY bad back then so I thought they said “dragons” instead of “wagons”. LONG STORY SHORT: I THOUGHT THE NEWSIES WERE DRAGON HUNTERS FOR LIKE 3 YEARS 😭

I also thought newsies was about dragons when I first watched it…

[oldmanfuckerbrigade]

please tell me you're going to expand on why the newsies movie is perfection and the musical is ass, I'd love to see it

(because you are right)

yknow, i was gonna save my rant for my imaginary video essay but it’s too in my head now so i might as well do the deep dive here. you asked so i shall deliver! (Be forewarned this is long as fuck i didnt know how much i needed to say until i started writing this)

Newsies is a (Gay) Love Story and That’s Why The Musical Fails™️

Ok. So. First and foremost, let’s talk about Newsies 1992. To be fair to my own biases, I have a very strong personal connection to 92sies, it was the first musical I ever saw on screen - one of the first movies I ever watched PERIOD - and some of my first memories are of listening to the soundtrack. So you could, on a certain level, chalk up my vehemence about its quality to my fondness for it, and I will gladly admit to that.

BUT. I have now been on this earth for 20 years, and in those 20 years I’ve watched a lot of movies, and a LOT of musicals (and am now studying film full time yippee for me). So I think I can say confidently, with my broadened tastes, that Newsies (1992) is a goddamn masterpiece of a movie musical.

It succeeds spectacularly in both regards, as a film and a musical. It had a stacked deck going in honestly, with directing and choreo both done by Kenny Ortega of High School Musical fame, as well as music by the inimitable Alan Menken. You know this shit was boutta pop off. From a filmmaking standpoint, it’s beautiful. Gorgeous matte paintings in the wide shots, fantastic set work and costume design, as well as the lighting and cinematography being on. fucking. point. every damn time it’s so good it makes me sick. You don’t even need me to say anything about the acting, cause we already know it’s phenomenal.

As a musical, it’s also right on the money. Every tenet of musical theater is respected, we have our intro ensemble number, introducing us to the world, the people within it, and the stakes of the story that we’ll follow. We have our absolute fucking BANGER of an “i want” song which Christian Bale puts his whole Baleussy into. And ofc we have some fantastic call-to-action, come-together, and uplifting songs and dance numbers.

But most importantly, every song does the one of two things any musical theater number should do: advance the story or give us insight into a characters thoughts and feelings. Let’s talk about them all in order (i promise this is gonna tie in to the stage show in a second just bare with me):

The Music

Carrying the Banner is ofc our opening theme, introducing us to the world and characters. Where and when are we, who are the heroes of our story? This is the “known” part of our hero’s journey, the home base and the place to which we will return. This is our Normal Time.

Santa Fe is, as we all know, Jack’s “I want” song, the song that tells the audience the hopes and dreams of our main character, so we can understand, well, what he wants. We can discover through this song what Jack’s character is all about. Through both what he has, what he lacks (or perceives he does) and what he hopes to gain. Jack has no family, he’s alone, but he has seemingly given up on ever being NOT alone, so he pins all his hopes for a better life on the mirage of Santa Fe. If he can pave his own way in the world, leave the city which has done nothing but take from him, maybe he can feel whole again. He’s a dreamer, despite his rough exterior, and he dreams of a life of freedom, beyond what he can find in New York. So there we get, all wrapped in a tidy bow, the essence of Jack Kelly’s character. a deeper look beyond what we have seen up until this point. Ok moving on.

In between Santa Fe and The World Will Know we have a small song which Medda sings. While that song in and of itself isn’t terribly important (it’s just part of her show), the scene that it’s in is VERY important. This is where we have an introduction to one of the few people we could consider part of Jack’s family, as a sort of mother/aunt figure. Overall it serves to give Jack more humanity, therefore giving our audience surrogate David (and hey i’m gonna go off about Davey just gimme a minute) more reason to trust Jack, and thereby the audience can trust him as well. We also get a little interaction between Jack and Davey that was pretty much ripped wholecloth from the movie and supplanted on Jack and Katherine in the show. It’s literally the same shit, Dave and Katherine are mistrustful of Jack and his intentions, they argue, it’s homoerotic as fuck, and it all takes place at the theater. (And also we get the one scene in the movie that does a weak ass attempt to un-gay David by having him drool over a pretty lady. It does not work lmfao).

The World Will Know is a standard call-to-action, but it by no means is mid-tier in any way. This shit slaps. HARD. We have Jack as the voice of the people convincing the gang of erstwhile children to band together with him on this, and stand up for their rights. This is also the first real time we get Jack and David teaming up to achieve a goal. Jack may be the voice of the people, but it’s David who’s the brains behind the operation, knowing what to say and do, while Jack has the respect and tenacity to put it forward. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. BECAUSE THE STAGE SHOW ALL BUT BRUSHES OFF DAVID’S INVOLVEMENT IN THIS SCENE, SO IT NO LONGER SERVES IT ENTIRE PURPOSE. A big secondary point of this scene is to illustrate that while Jack and David are strong boys independently, they work so much better together, and are able to achieve what they wouldn’t normally, alone. And the musical does not understand this. But i’ll get to that later.

Seize the Day is David’s first step towards standing in his own power. The newsies are losing steam on the strike train after Brooklyn refuses to join so David is the one to raise everyone’s morale and bring back their fighting spirit, getting all the other boys to take up the call, preaching brotherhood and community, the strength of standing together. Here is your come-together song. But this is the important thing: It’s David who does it. The song becomes an ensemble number as it goes on but HE is the one who STARTS it. David was hesitant to really rally behind the strike at first, but now he’s all in, he’s connected with the boys and he believes in the cause (thanks to the spirit that Jack brought to it, and how much Jack believe in it cough cough). He does start it in the musical as well, but the tone is very different, it’s only after Jack’s urging that he says anything. Bro didn’t even have to say shit in the movie. But whatever moving on.

King of New York is a hard song to mess up. It’s just good. and fun. and I like it. It probably has the least to do with moving the plot forward or giving us an internal look on any specific characters. It’s an ensemble and dance number. I do like it better in the movie rather than onstage, though that’s mostly personal preference. The stage show kind of beats it to death, like why is it 10 minutes long I swear to god. They know it’s a good song and they wanna capitalize on it, which makes it all seem kind of transparently cynical to me. it’s still like, good and the dancers are on top of it but….its too much y'know. The movie just has a good time with it. Because it’s a good time. Also Jack is there in the movie and he’s not in the stage show for some reason, I forget why. Probably because of some plot contrivance they got from trying to shove new elements into an already lock tight story. sorry ok back to actual critique.

Once and For All is like maybe my favorite song of the whole soundtrack. It just eats. Every time. This is the song we should play while smashing in the heads of the capitalist pigs that run our stupid fucking country. It’s a banger. AND it moves the plot forward, which is always a slay. Let’s make that underground pape and radicalize all the child workers being abused across the city!! yeah!!!

And then we got our TWWK and CtB reprises to tie up the ending in a neat little bow, bringing us back around the our beginning, a la the hero’s journey. We’ve completed our circle and are back to the beginning, changed but better for it, with our characters at transformed equilibrium, the evil vanquished, and bright days ahead. Jack realizes that he doesn’t need to chase the illusion of Santa Fe when what he really wants and needs is to be with the people who love him, the family that was right under his nose the whole time. David is a full fledged newsie, has come out of his shell, become more confident in himself, and his relationship with Jack is assured. So. Let’s talk about Jack and David.

Jack and David

Historians would call them “good friends”. This whole section is gonna be me preaching to the choir, so to speak, so I’ll try and keep this concise. We all know they’re gay, everyone and their mother knows they’re gay, so why is it important? It’s not like that shit is actually baked into the story right? WRONG. Jack and David are at the heart of the story of Newsies. Jack may be the “““main character”””, but David is the impetus for the events of the story, the driving force behind the plot. He is, in essence, the call to adventure that our hero Jack receives at the start of his arc.

He is also the audience surrogate. It’s through him that we learn the ways of the newsies, the ins and outs of the newsboy life, the trials and tribulations. It’s through him that we come to know Jack’s character on a deeper level. We only get Santa Fe after Jack has met Dave’s family (talk about U-Haul lesbians like my god he knew the guy for a DAY and he was already meeting the parents), and we get to see how seeing David’s loving family is painful for Jack, how he grieves that lack of connection but copes by pinning his hopes on Santa Fe. Most everywhere we see Jack go, we see it because David goes too. (MOST. There are exceptions, like his talk with Pulitzer. But of course, David is still RELEVANT in that scene). We see the story through David’s eyes.

Which is why the musical fails.

Because in the musical, David is so far removed from the narrative you could replace him with any guy and it would still work. He is an after thought, all but scrubbed from the script, and for why???

This I don’t have an answer for, which is really frustrating. My best guess is that it was a well-intentioned but misguided attempt to tighten up the script by placing Jack as the main character. And to make room for Katherine.

Oh Katherine….I used to really vehemently hate Katherine, and her addition to the story. I’ve obviously grown since then, I can recognize her importance as a woman within the story, and how that is important for young people to see in media. But also. She is unnecessary. TO THE PLOT. I won’t speak to her necessity from a larger, misogyny-on-the-world-stage level, but to the actual plot itself she is completely unnecessary. And you know how I know? Because they took movie David’s whole personality and just copy and pasted it onto her.

Ok now hear me out, I KNOW that it is not 1:1, but it really doesn’t have to be. If you step back and look at the bare essentials, it is the same shit. Jack and Katherine have the same enemies to lovers type dynamic that was Davey and Jack’s in the movie. There’s the initial mistrust, the dislike, she’s very professional, and kind of a know-it-all. Jack is the charming street rat, all dry wit and golden retriever energy. They tease and bicker and snap at each other. Exactly like Dave and Jack did in 92. Watching both versions back to back made this almost glaringly obvious to me. Like it was actually kind of shocking how obvious it was.

And the thing is, I understand why they did it! Sarah was such a nothingburger character in the movie (sorry Sarah, love you in fics, hate your actress with a burning passion) that they knew they had to add SOMETHING more to any potential romance subplot, and if they were conveniently sidelining David’s character anyway, why not take some cues from the most powerful relationship in the film? I understand the logic behind it, I really do.

But. That still leaves David, flopping around the script like a severed limb, with nowhere to go and nothing to do to help the plot. Cause here’s the thing, his and Jack's relationship is what makes the movie. I don’t care if I'm fandom-goggling this my tin hat is ON I have a MASTERS in FUJOSHI STUDIES. The movie is at its core, about brotherhood and community. It’s about boyhood and friendship and banding together with your peers to achieve great things. They give us this theme through Jack and Dave.

Dave is an outsider, unfamiliar to the ways of the street kids and working within a community like that. Jack is old hat to it, born and bred in it, it’s his home and his family. They come together through a twist of fate, Jack initially thinking only about what’ll earn him the most money at the end of the day, and Davey rightfully mistrustful of him. But they end up forming an organic bond through the strike, finding common ground with one another, and realizing if they team up they can accomplish great things. We see them struggle together, and break apart for a bit. We see Jack realize he’s gotten too close to this boy, brought him into something dangerous and now he genuinely cares for him which is even worse. David goes so far as to break Jack out of jail, but not before Pulitzer can get to him and threaten him with the one thing Jack will take seriously: David. Jack is forced to destroy David's and the rest of the newsies' trust just to keep them safe.

But through all this, facing incredible adversity, dangerous circumstances, gaining and losing a close friend, David is forced to come into his own, take on a role of leadership and stand up for what he believes in. In this way, his own character arc is fulfilled, by the end of the movie. And the one thing that gets Jack back to the newsies? Why David being in trouble, of course. The one thing he hoped to avoid by agreeing to Pulitzers terms. That’s all it takes for him to take it all back, the prospect of David being in danger.

BRO. WHEN I SAY. THAT THEIR RELATIONSHIP IS WHAT DRIVES THE PLOT. I FUCKING MEAN IT.

And y'know they make their own paper and radicalize all the kids in the city, they go to Pulitzer TOGETHER. BY THE WAY. TOGETHER. Which the musical cannot seem to understand. It’s only as a united front that they are able to beat Pulitzer and win fair terms for the newsies. And then jacks like ahhh yeah im goin to santa fe so long fuckers and then is like never mind actually i wanna come back and kiss Dav- I mean Sarah.

Which is also a hilarious fucking scene to me like that whole last interaction between Dave and Jack is so damn romantic in tone that the only way for the tension to break was with a kiss, so they had to have Sarah come in out of nowhere to kiss Jack 💀 like they knew that shit was leading to something but they couldn’t have the boys kiss obviously so they had to throw a woman in there real quick.

-

So. tldr. I meant this to be a lot more organized and make a lot more sense than it did but oh well. The reason the musical fails is because it fails to recognize that Dave and Jack are EQUALLY both the main characters, you can’t have one without the other, their partnership is the core force of the plot and story, without both of them you are left with something resembling the story you once knew, but with none of the heart and spirit of the original.

Other Technical Things That Are Bad

i wanted to take a second and just touch on some smaller details that also stood out to me, but are less connected to my central thesis.

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Costumes. Oh boy did they fuck that one up on stage. Now to be fair, I’ve only seen the 2017 pro shot and one (1) local children’s production. Not any of the other runs or anything. So I'm only talking about what I’ve seen here. But what I’ve seen is Not Good. There’s already a lot of names and faces flying around in the movie which are hard to keep track of as it is, but everyone looks different enough from the person next to them that you know who your main players are. Each kid has his own way of dressing, unique color palette, accessories, and other styling choices that make them stand out. If you know who you're looking for, you can pick out any named newsie from any of the major ensemble scenes. You can't do that with the show. Everyone is wearing a variation of the same bland shirts and pants, and the color palette is dull gray-brown across the board. I'm not saying you have to go crazy with colors and shit, the costumes in the movie are believably period accurate, but I can still tell Racetrack from Mush without having to squint. (Also hey shout out to whoever decided to do that little red/blue color palette motif on movie Jack and Dave. I see you, and I appreciate you.)

//

The new songs suck but what can you do :/. Sorry to Alan Menken you ate with the movie my guy but you were just not on your A-game with this one. I didn’t even know it was still Menken doing the music in the stage show honestly, with how different and sucky the new songs were. Personal taste on this one I guess. But I don’t like them. Why does Pulitzer need a song. Literally why. If they had to give any pre-existing character their own song it should've been David! Like literally no question about it, it should have been David. Also why are we doing Santa Fe at the opening?? Did we forget how musicals work?? We never open with the "I want" song! ESPECIALLY if it's a ballad!!

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The set. Yeah I’m really here to tear everything down ig, I didn’t know I had this many gripes until I started writing this sorry guys 😭 But yeah it’s not as gooood. And I'm like. ok. I know they were never gonna be able to do anything close to the movie. It’s onstage. They had to make sacrifices. But tell me why it all had to be cool toned?? The movie's color palette is so nice and warm, it feels antiquated but also real, it’s homey and nice. But also unforgiving and rough when it needs to be. They could’ve done that with lighting and shit onstage, changing the tone when it needs to, but instead they opted to throw out the warm tones for mostly cool gray steel backdrops. Whatever. I’m not a set tech. They know better than me.

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THAT KID. IS SO MOTHERFUCKING ANNOYING. I AM SO SORRY. BUT IT IS HOW I FEEL. No hate at all to the kid playing Les in the 2017 pro shot, he was just a child he was doing his best not his fault at all. I’m choosing to blame the writing. But also goddamn if that kid's choices for delivery did not grate on my ears. His voice. just. did not sit right with me idk. Les in the movie is such a cute and endearing kid, I always adored him as he reminded me a lot of my own younger brothers. But this kidddd. is so unlikeable it’s like, going PAST annoying unfunny comic relief character straight into “how the fuck did anyone think this was a good idea”.

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The ending suuuuuucks boooooo it’s bad I don’t like it I'm kinda running outta steam here but I still got shit to say so fuck it we ball. it’s so over explained that it’s just. just dumb. It just becomes dumb at a certain point. Jack going to do cartoons for Pulitzer??? What??? Don’t get me wrong I actually really love them giving him artistic talent I think that really adds some actually GOOD dimension to his character, but this????? Really????? Everything is just so like *perfectly* wrapped up that it totally destroys my suspension of disbelief. In the movie it’s definitely very wish-fulfilling and unrealistic, but it’s from the perspective of kids. It’s exactly as a kid would perceive it. And we don’t see exactly how the conceding of Pulitzer goes down and we SHOULDN’T!! Because then it gets all bogged down with the logistics of it all which is exactly what happened to the play! We don’t need all the details, we just need to know they won.

//

This one isn’t a gripe actually because I apparently DO have love in my heart: I love musical Crutchie. I love him, I love him so much my sweet boy. I love him being Jack’s little brother I love them having that deeper connection. I love Crutchie in the movie so to see him getting more screen time (so to speak) is just lovely. The one change I agree with. I love you forever Crutchie.

ok i’ve been writing for hours and my hands gonna fall off so im done now. if i think of anything else…well, you’ll just have to wait for my video essay i guess.

[loiteringandlurking]

headcanon that there's HEAPS of spare beds in the lodging house but the newsies just choose to sleep in the same beds hit post

[saysflora]

I’ve seen a few people question ‘oh why did David take Les to go and break Jack out of the refuge’ (because let’s be honest it’s a really weird decision on his part) and anyway I’ve always imagined that Les overheard him and Sarah talking about it or caught David sneaking out or something and was IMMEDIATELY like “you have to let me come and help Jack or else I’m waking Mama and Papa right now” and David is like “FINE just be quiet”

I think this mainly because it’s funny but also because I have younger brothers and ohmygod you have no idea how often it used to happen

[chaosfairy18]

Swifty and Bumlets sell together, which means passer bys are always in for the charm of the pair of them. Their kind smiles and charming personalities coming forth to woo whoever into buying a pape. Ocassionally they pick wild flowers to hand out with the papers, their charm not immune to even husbands running late from work, "and a flower for the other half?" Swifty asks and who would be a fool to not fall for their perfectly worked out salespitch, even coming back to the lodging house with a few flowers left over :)

Took a bit to answer because I really wanted to write something with it because it's just so cute! I'd look forward to ideas like this in my askbox more often, I just love my boys. Not quite happy with the end, but it's still nice

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While Skittery, Bumlets and Swifty were inseparable on most occasions, selling wasn’t one of them. As Tumbler was both difficult to keep track of and very attached to Skittery, it was easiest to have their littlest little sell with Skittery which also immensely increased the often grouchy boy’s sales as he had the cutest kid with the biggest pleading eyes with him.

Since 4 newsies selling close to one place really wasn’t profitable, they split up in groups of two most of the time, Bumlets and Swifty as well as Tumbler and Skittery – sometimes Flipper begged Bumlets to sell with him, but that wasn’t too often. The thing about Bumlets and Swifty selling together was that they could both talk their way out of most trouble and knew how to use those charms well for selling too.

And as much as Bumlets usually didn’t need to talk himself out of trouble, he had more than enough use for his charms with bailing Swifty out too, if need be.

But that day there hadn’t been any trouble – Bumlets just turned a blind eye as Swifty lifted a passerby of his pocket watch because no matter how often he told him it was dangerous, he wouldn’t stop anyways – instead of trouble they actually found themselves selling even better than usual. They sold close to a park and, thinking back to his parents and how his mother had loved it if his father had come home with a flower he’d picked up on the way home from work, Bumlets thought they might even make a good selling day into a great one.

He and Swifty gathered some of the wildflowers growing in the grass, enjoying the rare minutes in nature in a city as big and bustling as New York before going back to work.

“Miss, care for a pape and a flower?”, Bumlets asked a well-dressed young lady walking by, upselling his sales pitch with: “I’d even give you two flowers, one couldn’t possibly match your beauty, Miss.”

She giggled, flattered, and took the pape and flowers for two pennies, holding both close to her heart and smiling even wider as Bumlets slightly bowed to her with a grin before going back to selling. Skittery would probably say something about overselling it, but she was a pretty lady, and no one had to know he’d never do more than exchange some flowery words for he already had someone.

“A pape fer yourself and a flower for the other half?”, he heard Swifty call out to a man passing by him who quickly stopped, looking surprised for a moment before switching to relief.

“Exactly what I need right now, kid. Might make her less mad I couldn’t get outta work sooner.”

He took the newspaper and flowers and Swifty called after him: “Good luck on that, mister!” It made Bumlets smile, even if he saw Swifty grab a note poking out of some bank worker’s pocket with the hand he wasn’t waving after the man who’d just bought the pape from him.

They sold all of their papes and most of the flowers by evening and after stopping by where Swifty usually peddled his ‘extra earnings’ and made them into money, they walked back to the lodge, Bumlets carefully holding the few flowers they had left. They still looked nice, and he was sure Kloppman would appreciate them.

He gave the superintendent all of them except two, hiding them away quickly, and Kloppman shook his head trying to find a small vase in his cupboards. Leaving him to it, Bumlets pulled Swifty over to where Skittery sat at the windowsill, keeping watch over Tumbler playing swords with Les.

Before he could react, Bumlets pushed one of the flowers in his hand, the other going to Swifty. “Hope your day was good.”

“Just got better.”, Skittery murmured, looking at the small red flower, turning it in his hand. “Thanks, Bum.”

[liliesyonder]

hiiii so I just recently discovered your art through your Racetrack drawing (which I LOVE BTW) and I was wondering if you could draw a Sparah scene and also tell me your thoughts on them? I have suggestions for the scene if you need them :D

They’d play a mean game of poker! (And wipe everyone out of their money.) But also I genuinely think they’d work well together! I hadn’t considered them seriously until I read @/queenofbrooklyn’s fantastic fics (GO READ THEM RN. GO!!! I could talk about Libby’s fics Forever. Genuinely surviving the ride was formative in cementing how much I love this pairing and I revisit it whenever I can.) and ever since I’ve been hooked. I think they’re both very intelligent and opportunistic individuals that would find each other fascinating in their own right. There’s a softness in Sarah that spot can’t have as a figurehead and there’s a bluntness that spot conducts himself with which sarah admires for its necessity. Very good parallels/foils if written well! Also thank you for liking the racetrack piece hopefully more 92sies Art to come ^_^

[make-friends-with-the-rats]

In 1992, Disney released a new movie musical featuring songs by Alan Menken and an unconventional hero who steals food, runs from the law, and lies about his identity.

Oh, wait.

Or did they release two?

Here is my incomplete list of similarities and connections between Newsies (released 10 April 1992) and Aladdin (released 11 November 1992)

1- Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Lyricist Howard Ashman is responsible for pitching the idea for Aladdin to Disney and initially it was him and Alan Menken who wrote the songs for the animated film. The same duo was supposed to write the songs for Newsies, however Ashman was unable to work with Menken on Newsies due to his illness from AIDS and Jack Feldman was brought in to write the lyrics for Newsies instead. Ashman died in 1991 the day before songwriting for Newsies officially began[x].

2- Street Rats. As mentioned in my introduction, Jack Kelly and Aladdin find themselves in very similar circumstances. The similarity between the two characters isn't hard to spot.

3- Rooftop Trust Exercise? In both the Newsies 1991 film script and Newsies: a novel, there is a scene on the rooftop where Jack, David, and Les are being chased by Snyder and Jack leads the Jacobs brothers between rooftops across a plank. In the novel, David looks down when he's halfway across and Jack calls out to him and holds out a hand to calm David and get him across.

Unfortunately, the scene was cut and isn't in the final film. However, a similar concept seems to have made its way into Aladdin instead. The one scene from Newsies is split into two and the plank part isn't in the middle of a chase (also, Jasmine takes the situation much better than David did), but the similarity is no less interesting. I think it's also significant to note that the Newsies scene is not found in Hard Promises and was in fact a Disney rewrite.

Top: Newsies 1991 film script and Newsies: a novel excerpts. Bottom: Aladdin (1992) screencaps.

4- Importance of Identity. Once again there is a similarity between the two main characters. Francis Sullivan becomes Jack Kelly, and Aladdin becomes Prince Ali. I think it could be argued that in both cases the facade or new identity is used as a form of escapism so that the hero can at least try to obtain the thing he wants. Francis Sullivan has a father in jail and a dead mother (and brother), but Jack Kelly has a family waiting for him out west. Aladdin is a thief with no honest money to his name, but Prince Ali can afford luxury and win the heart of a princess.

5- Proud of Your Boy. The song, "Proud of Your Boy" was originally written in 1988 by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman for Aladdin, however it was cut when Aladdin went through rewrites that cut Aladdin's mother from the story. Later on, the song would be reincorporated into the stage musical version of Aladdin, but before then it would gain an odd connection to Newsies.

There have been rumors that "Proud of Your Boy" might have been intended to be used for David in Newsies, and while it's not impossible I have found no evidence that the song was ever officially associated with Newsies beyond the fact that Howard Ashman was supposed to have written the lyrics for Newsies as stated in my first point. However, regardless of whatever Disney intended to do with the song, an "illegal" stage adaptation of Newsies cropped up written by Philip L McBride that gave the song to David anyways. I have a post that explains this further which you can find here.

Left: "Newsies Libretto," page 57. Right: Aladdin Jr. script, page 18.

6- Stage Adaptations. Curiously, just as the original films were both released in 1992, Newsies and Aladdin both took to the stage for the first time in 2011. Newsies at Paper Mill Playhouse, and Aladdin at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle.

Honorable mentions:

The Aladdin (2019) chase scene has been described as being more similar to the chase scene in Newsies (1992) than to the original in Aladdin (1992). [x]

This last note is more of a fun fact, but Pierre Marais who played Jack Kelly in the Theatre Under The Stars production of Newsies last year was also in Aladdin.

Left: Pierre Marais as Aladdin in Broadway's Aladdin on tour, and Right: Pierre Marais as Jack Kelly at the Theatre Under The Stars.

I think it's interesting that, although these two stories seem to be intertwined, Newsies initially flopped whereas Aladdin was met with wide success and became the highest-grossing film of 1992.

[nyx-thedragon]

i'm hardcore procrastinating doing school work even though i know it needs to be done, but through that procrastination, i have noted down all the changes from 92sies to livesies that I could think of that i want to know the reason for (i watched livesies with my brother earlier, that's what spurred this on). so, here is that list (in order of when i thought of them, pretty much)!

92sies to livesies changes I wanna know the reason for:

1- all the lyric changes - carrying the banner, specifically

2- Denton is just gone. why? :(

3- to go along with #1 - Race didn't say the line about Sheepshead??? literally what was the reason??

4- how they lowkey butchered David's character a lil -> why was he so adamantly against the union/strike and wanting to help with it?? in 92sies he was concerned, sure, but he wasn't as against it as livesies David

5- Seize the Day not being a David song -> he doesn't have a solo song in livesies! Kath & Jack get one, why not him??

6- no more Cowboy Jack. why?

7- Jack's main "character color" is blue instead of red, and David's is...white? also blue? -> starts off with no color pop, has blue towards/at the end -> main characters need separate "character colors", thank yew

8- Spot & Brooklyn don't help out as soon in the story as in 92sies (Brooklyn's Here is a bop tho)

9- Les is a lot more...more? in livesies. why?

10- David has a more prominent accent like the other newsies than in 92sies (you can hear David Moscow, David's actor in 92sies, slip into his actual New York accent when he's talking to Spot Conlon, fun fact (that i saw from an article (?) that someone posted a link to ages ago))

11- Jack's backstory - he's literally just Jack Kelly in livesies, no "Francis Sullivan" being his "real" name. why?

12- the addition of Bill & Darcy (i guess without Denton, the newsies don't know anyone who can use the printing press, so they needed to be there...)

13- Kath going from annoyed at Jack & his advances to actually starting to/liking him happened kinda fast imo - could've taken some more time for that in the script -- too many long dance breaks!! shorten one!!!

14- Kid Blink (and Mush, kind of) isn't there or just isn't named :( [Mush is a named character in the script, but his name was never said in the performance - in the Disney proshot at least]

15- absolutely zero mention of Sarah Jacobs. none. like she never existed. she could've been named at least once by David when he mentioned his and Les's parents

16- Jack is extremely flirty with Kath right out of the gate ??

17- Brooklyn newsies have a signature color, red (maybe that's why Jack's character color couldn't be red...)

18- Jack doesn't try to break Crutchie out of the Refuge

19- Mayer Jacobs hurt his leg instead of his arm ?

20- Jack mentions how Mayer didn't have a union to protect him from being fired -> goes along with David being so fucking adamant about not going through with the union/strike (David mentions his dad not having a union to protect him in 92sies, not Jack)

21- no real explanation on why Jack's dad isn't around. is he dead? in jail? (all that's mentioned of him is that the streets of New York "sucked the life right outta" him in Santa Fe (Prologue)) -> also, his mom isn't mentioned at all

22- David has no clue how buying papers works ??

23- Les doesn't know about orphans ? (Jack: "ya got folks, huh?" Les: "doesn't everyone?")

24- why was Medda's last name changed from "Larkson" to "Larkin"

25- Les yelling at the person who throws them out of the World building instead of Jack

26- Santa Fe feeling more like "i'm gonna kill myself if i don't get out of here" instead of yearning for the freedom of the West (there's still yearning, but not as much)

27- Jack starts to have second thoughts about the strike earlier than in 92sies

28- Jack talks to Pulitzer about the deal before the rally instead of after -> and he doesn't get arrested at the rally (this one goes along with #27)

and that's the end of the list! less than i thought there would be, but more than what i mentioned while watching it. anyway, if there's any like, explanations for any of these changes, let me know and link the article or interview or whatever where they're explained, if you can! i am genuinely curious about all of these and have been for a while, actually.

anyway, that's all for this post! have a great day/night, and stay warm! :3

(p.s. i tried something out with coloring the character names, kind of color-coded based on their character colors - Jack is red, David blue, Kath and Medda pink, the other Jacobs family members are purple, Denton is orange (his character color is tan/brown, but i don't have that here, so orange will have to do), and any other characters are green because they don't have character colors. let me know if you like it, or if it's too confusing; i'm totally fine changing it if y'all think it's too much)