Newsies, the Broadway musical based on the cult Disney movie starring Christian Bale, is one of the 2011-12 NYC theatre season's biggest success stories. The show, about newspaper boys on strike in the early 20th Century, was nominated for eight Tony Awards, and it's playing regularly to full capacity. Newsies this week saw the announcement that it would have an open-ended run instead of closing on August 19 as originally planned.
Aloft: Broadway's "Newsies" soar, nightly at the Nederlander Theatre
This must be balm for the show's composer, Alan Menken, whose other new Broadway title,
Leap of Faith, recently closed, not long after opening.
Newsies wasn't originally intended even as a Broadway offering. It was written to be licensed for regional theaters and schools productions. Only after the successful run at Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey last autumn did producers envision a Main Stem engagement.
According to the New York Times, the current cast (which includes rising young star Jeremy Jordan) will continue with the show past its original close date.
Filed under Hot Topics, Theatre · Tagged with 2012 Tony Awards, Alan Menken, August 19, Christian Bale, Jeremy Jordan, King of New York, Leap of Faith, musical theatre, Newsies, Paper Mill Playhouse
