New York City newsboys went on strike in 1899 for better pay and defeated the forces of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. Decades later, a movie was made out of their grass-roots campaign, and later a Broadway musical. That stage show will be shown this week in theaters nationwide including four in Connecticut.
“Newsies” tells the story of Jack Kelly, a newsboy who leads a band of scruffy paper vendors to take on the media titans, whose increase in the price of papers cuts into the newsboys’ wages.
When it was on Broadway starting in 2012, “Newsies” won Tonys for best choreography (Christopher Gattelli) and best original score (Alan Menken and Jack Feldman). It also was nominated for best musical, book, director, orchestrations and scenic design, as well as best performance by a leading actor in a musical, Jeremy Jordan, who portrayed Kelly.
For this presentation, recorded at The Pantages Theatre in Hollywood in September 2016, Jordan returns as Kelly, as well as several other members of the Broadway cast.
“Newsies” will be shown Thursday, Feb. 16, at 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 28, at 12:55 p.m. and Wednesday, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m. at Cinemark Buckland Hills in Manchester, AMC Loews Plainville, Brass Mill Stadium 12 in Waterbury and Cinemark North Haven, as well as Showcase Cinemas West Springfield in Massachusetts. Tickets and details: fathomevents.com.
