Do you think the Newsies fandom is dying?
This is such an interesting question! My short answer is no, the newsies fandom isn't dying. However, I've been around long enough to witness that the newsies fandom does tend to go through cycles where it will thin out before gaining more engagement again.
There are two sides to the newsies fandom:
The movie musical has been going steady for 34 years with it's earliest fandom spaces being the newsies fansites of the 1990s! It continues to be a cult classic and it continues to reach new fans through a variety of different ways.
The stage musical saw it's peak in popularity in the 2010s but has also continued to find an audience, especially through students being cast in school or community productions of the show. Popular productions such as the UK production and currently the Muny also tend to contribute to an uptick in fandom activity and to the cyclical nature of the fandom as a whole.
The following data isn't by any means comprehensive, but it may interest you to take a look at the popularity of Newsies over time according to Google Trends:
Worldwide popularity of Newsies (1992 film) as a Google search item from 2004 to the present. Currently sitting at 35% popularity compared to its peak.
Worldwide popularity of Newsies (Musical by Harvey Fierstein) as a Google search item from 2010 to the present. Currently sitting at 11% popularity compared to its peak.
I think it's safe to say that the newsies fandom isn't dying!
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