Tuesday, May 10, 2016

"Newsies" (Thing 1)

We watched "Newsies." A runaway juvenile delinquent, Jack Kelly, gets a job as a newsie in New York. But when the newsies suffer from salary cuts, Jack convinces them to go on strike. Between the chaos of the riots and Jack trying to hide from the Warden Snyder, trouble follows the newsies everywhere.

This was a really fun musical. Right off the bat, it was full of upbeat songs and constant movement, just like New York is. Jack Kelly was played by Christian Bale, who is the perfect kind of actor for his role, a sort of wannabe cowboy/revolutionary. Partnering up with the more levelheaded David, they worked together to keep the strike going without it getting too out of hand (most of the time). The overall feel and theme of the movie reminded me of a "Mary Poppins" meets "Les Misérables." Les, probably the youngest of all of them, was even like Gavroche. The music was great, too; catchy, but not in a borderline annoying way like songs from "Music Man" might get stuck in your head.

Overall, I would give it


(actual rating 3.5). This isn't something I liked enough to see on Broadway or anything, but I would definitely recommend watching the movie.

2 comments:

Dr. Mark said...

I've never seen the show in any format so this review was a nice recap. Too bad they didn't catch on a little more--you could free your mind of the tentacles that is the musical du jour. ;)

Boquinha said...

Great and thorough review. I like the analogies to other musicals. Good way to describe it. I'm glad I got to watch a bunch of it with you two. And holy cow, Christian Bale, amiright?? He's seemingly EVERYWHERE these days (as we watch old 90s movies). :P