Read all about it! Read all about it! Historic Broadway show transfers to London for the first time. Newsies, for a short time only in London, extra extra! We got a reporter on the ground for this very special occasion, and she shared her thoughts with us personally. Morning papes right here!
Newsies is set in 1899 and tells the story of the New York City Newsies, newspaper boys who make a living selling newspapers. During the Trolley Strikes, we follow Jack Kelly, the charismatic leader of the Newsies of Lower Manhattan, and his best friend Crutchie. Due to the strike, Davey and his nine-year-old brother Les join the group to feed their family, just as newspaper tycoon Joseph Pulitzer decides to increase the price Newsies buy them for, in hopes his circulation would increase. Faced with a new threat to their livelihoods, they team up with young reporter Katherine and decide to unionise, striking against the newspaper giant.
During the Covid pandemic, I became quite attached to the show recording of this musical from 2016 that’s available on Disney+. I quickly fell in love with its story, the energetic brilliance that is its legendary choreography and the very catchy soundtrack. So when I heard it would be opening in London, I was ecstatic. However, this production for me seriously didn’t live up to expectations. This show was staged in the Troubadour Wembley Park, a monumental space that has a 2000-person capacity, which is unheard of for an off West End theatre. But the downside of this is the space feels very massive, and from near the back (as I was), you’re very far from everything. This performance is classed as immersive because cast run through the stalls and around the sides which is great, but most of this happened 50-60m in front of me, with another 30-40m between that and the stage, putting me around 100m from the stage itself, which dwarfs the production hugely.
Furthermore because of the issue with having this wide-open space, the audio struggles. Normal conversation was perfectly fine, but I feel Newsies works best at high volumes, which was completely lost in the space during all of the musical numbers. Whilst the choreography continues to be amazing (Olivier-award winning in fact), the simple issue of being so far away means a lot of the impact is lost, as is other factors like facial expression and emotion.
The production has been widely praised, and I fully realise I’m in the minority with this. And a lot of the issues I’ve spoken about do fall down to being physically so far away from the stage, so maybe being closer would remedy these issues? I don’t know. But I do think this isn’t the right space for a production such as this, where it would be a lot more suited to a more classic theatre environment. Whilst the London production is now closed and my experience of Newsies in London wasn’t amazing, I do believe it has a potential West End / touring future, and genuinely hope it does see such a future. But the Troubadour isn’t the right venue for a production like this, which I believe seriously impacted my experience of Newsies.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Newsies ran for eight months at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, ending on July 30th 2023. An American recording of the show is available on Disney+
