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‘Newsies’ Hits the Fox Theatre Jan. 20-25

2015 January 19

Winner of the 2012 Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Choreography, “Newsies” hits the Fox Theatre this week.

Based on the New York City Newsboys Strike of 1899 and the 1992 American musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Pictures, “Newsies” ran for more than two years on Broadway.

It’s 1899, and a group of mostly homeless and orphaned boys live together and sell newspapers for their livelihood. After the publisher increases the cost of the papers to the boys, they go on strike and become the news.

The Chicago Tribune said of the national tour, “This is a stellar tour, replete with all the scenery from New York, which displays itself very nicely in the Oriental Theatre — looking flashier, actually, than it did back at the more cramped Nederlander Theatre in New York. The principals are decent.”

In its review of the Broadway show, the New York Times said, “Yes, what’s being marketed is Urchin Appeal. You remember urchins, right? They’re those plucky, resourceful ragamuffins — preferably orphans — whom America once embraced in movies like the Dead End Kids and Bowery Boys series and musicals like ‘Oliver!’ and ‘Annie.’ ”

Music is by Alan Menken, who scored “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” and “Pocahontas,” which each won him two Academy Awards. Lyrics by Jack Feldman, and book by Harvey Fierstein, “Newsies” plays at the Fox Theatre Jan. 20-25.

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