Winter. A time of year the newsboys of New York City wish they skip over. It got cold- real cold. Newsies all over would start showing signs of sickness within the first weeks of winter. Not as many people are out on the streets, which means not as...
Hello there! I'm just going to talk about some of my favourite things about the 1992 version and some differences between the 1992 version and the Broadway version. So, if you want to hear me bant about newsies for a good couple of pages, you have come to the right place.
First off, let me state that I truly do not have a preference. The 1992 version has some things in it that I love over things in the Broadway version and vice versa. Anyways, let's dive into it.
The Broadway version of Newsies opens up with Jack and Crutchie, sleeping outdoors while in the movie version of the first scene we get to see is the Newsboy lodge house. I really liked the lodge house because that's actually where the real newsboys would sleep and it was nice to be informed that they aren't actually sleeping on the streets. I mean, it kind of ruins some of those iconic lines from the BW version such as "I'll be sleepin' on the streets!" "...You already sleep on the streets." "In a worse neighborhood." But overall I do enjoy how they included the lodgehouse.
Let's talk characters. I think for me the Jack Kelly movie version and Jack Kelly BW version is tied. I liked the whole 'cowboy' aspect in the movie but I loved how in the BW version he was an artist. I 100% like the Crutchie in the BW version more. The movie one is great too, but I just like the broadway one more. He has a little bit more of a prominent role and I just enjoy him more. I love all of the side newsies in both versions. People like Kid Blink and Skittery are high on my list of favourites, but in the BW version I love Albert and Specs. The side newsies are all pretty equal for me. But, not so much a side character, my boy Racetrack Higgins. I really like both versions of him because they're so different yet so similar. Obviously I love Ben Cook to pieces but I love some of the aspects of the movie Race. Now, one character, I can say I like in the movie more than I liked in the musical would be Spot Conlon. Now I love Tommy Bracco, but in the movie Spot was part of the show much more. They had many more scenes with him and he actually interacts with Racetrack multiple times. I just like the movie version more because he's a fleshed out character vs a named ensemble character.
Alrighty, now let's discuss the actual musical aspect of the two performances. In the 1992 movie, the singing isn't the best. I mean, it's not awful but it's really not comparable to people like Jeremy Jordan and Andrew Keenan-Bolger. That doesn't mean I don't listen to both versions on repeat though. As expected, the dancing in the BW one is a lot better and more extravagant, but some of the moves they did in the 1992 one were pretty awesome. They even had a mini-tap routine in King of New York and there were tons of flips and spins and jumping throughout the whole movie. They literally cannot keep their hands off each other, it's so funny. Another big difference would be the lyrics. The lyrics have been altered a bit for the BW version and I don't know which I like more. Both versions of the songs have their place. They did remove both of Medda's movie songs with 'That's Rich', which I like so much more than the one she sang in the movie.
Now, I took about 8 pages of notes while watching the movie so I guess I'll just put some of those points here.
Carrying the banner is incredible and I loved the whole 'Patrick's mom' part.
Davey looks really different and I like the BW version of him better
Medda in the movie is just so different. Everyone seems to be in love with her while the boys in the BW version seem to view her as more of a mother figure, which I personally prefer
Instead of going to refuge for stealing food for some of the starving newsies, in the movie he claimed to go to jail for stealing for himself. I like to think he went to jail for the first reason lol
There's this scene in the movie where Jack is smoking and if you look off to the side you can see Les pretend to smoke a twizzler
Okay, I won't go into all 8 pages of notes I made but I feel like I need to discuss movie Sprace versus BW Sprace. In the movie, there are multiple scenes that you could use for evidence. In King of New York, Race goes 'Ain't I pretty, it's my city' (you know the lyrics) and when Race says 'Ain't I pretty' Spot nods. Like, full on nods. I'll see if I can include some videos at the end to show you. And my main argument is that the movie version of Race isn't that attractive. I'm not trying to be mean or judge people's looks or anything, but in the movie I don't think Race would be thought of as one of the prettier newsboys. I mean, yeah he's Racetrack so I'm going to love him anyways and it's all preference, but Spot Conlon, that boy is pretty. Skittery? Yep. Jack? Mhm. But Race? Not really. Nobody else in the room nods so it isn't like he's widely thought of as attractive, but Spot sure thinks so. There's another scene (which was removed from the Broadway show entirely) where all of the boys have been arrested and theyre standing in a courtroom. Spot says that he objects and the judge asks on what grounds, so Spot says 'On the ground of Brooklyn'. All of the newsies start to laugh, and Race places his head onto Spot's shoulder. Now, if you've seen the movie you will be thinking 'oh, but one of the other boys does it too.' BUT something I noticed is that once they finished laughing, both Race and the other boy put their heads up again. If you watch the scene though, right before the cut back to the judge you can see Race go back to put his head on Spot's shoulder, even after he's finished laughing. Plus, after this the judge says he would fine them all $5. Race says that they don't have five dollars, that they "don't even have five cents." He then proceeds to tell the judge that he'll "roll you for it, double or nothing." This sends the boys into another laughing frenzy, BUT as Race is talking, Spot is just staring at him, and I mean staring. He's giving him 'the look' if you know what I mean. I'll put a pic at the end.
Now overall, the movie has some incredible scenes that make up for anything else they slacked in. One of those scene would be at the very end when Jack is riding in Roosevelt's carriage and he gets out after changing his mind. One of the last scenes is Teddy's carriage leaving after dropping Jack off, and you can just see Spot sitting in the back, waving. It's just so funny and such a Spot thing to do.
I could literally go on and write a whole book about the differences between the two, but I just wanted to talk about newsies a little bit more because I love it so much. If you read this, good for you. If you didn't, I don't blame you.
I took these pictures on my phone while I was watching on my laptop, but here they are anyways.
I don't care if you ship them or not but there is no one on planet Earth who can convince me that it is completely normal to look at your friend like this (keep in mind he holds this look for a solid 5 seconds)
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I sadly can't include the video from King of New York, but if you want to see it you can find a clip of the song on youtube and it should be at about 1:28
