TUTS - "Newsies"

My sister-in-law and I have started a tradition (three years running) of going to Theatre Under The Stars in Stanley Park to see a musical every summer.  Now, many of you know I am not particularly fond of musicals, but I leave the theatre with a big grin on my face after these TUTS shows.  It is a perfect piece of summer time froth and I thoroughly enjoy this little dose of musical theatre once a year.  This year, we saw "Newsies" which has the possibility of being a bit more than just froth, because although it is a musical, it is about downtrodden workers trying to organize a union to fight the rich fatcats who get to call all the shots and exploit them and don't treat them fairly.  The basic premise is that there are these kids who sell newspapers ("papes") in the streets of New York and the newspaper owners pay them a pittance which suffices to feed them meagrely but forces them to sleep on fire escapes and wear rags and, if they get hurt or sick, to worry about whether they can afford to take care of themselves (gee, something like what many people face in our enlightened age!)  When the newspaper bosses decide to raise the cost of the papers, the "newsies" decide to organize a union. As a proud union member myself, I am always gratified to see people take their working lives into their own hands and banding together to demand respect in their workplaces.

This show takes on that task and a lot of the songs are about standing together and seizing the day (not "the means of production", that might be a bit radical for a musical that was originally a Disney movie!) but it blinks at the end and gives us too pat an answer for such a complicated situation.  Nevertheless, the show was very entertaining, the songs uplifting, some of the actors outstanding and the dancing was out of this world.  The dancing is always what gets me.  I like the singing and the actors always have a lot of energy, but the dancing is what puts that huge smile on my face.  The dances in this show were especially amazing with tumbling and tapping and show dancing and the chorus line was magnificent.  The lead guy was great (Adam Charles) and a couple of the newsies (a tough Asian kid who smoked all the time and an Italian looking kid with his hat turned backwards -- it's hard to figure out which actor they are) were really amazing.  A couple of the performers seemed to have slight problems with their big songs (Julia Ullrich as Katherine kept having those clogged voice problems, but she soldiered through her big number and was at least 80% successful) but the show was great -- the set looked terrific and the choreography was great in design and execution -- a great evening at the theatre.

The other show, running on alternate nights from "Newsies" is "Mamma Mia" and I'm sure, if you like ABBA, it would be great, too.  (I don't.)  The shows are very popular, so if you want to go, make sure you book ahead.