The Manhattan Newsies Hierarchy Post
I’d been telling myself I’d make this for a while and I just rewatched Live so I thought I’d give some thoughts? this is long so get ready
So in my opinion everyone who called a neighborhood after TWWK has some sort of….leadership role. so who called out things?
It was:
Mush (Harlem)
Race (Midtown)
Specs (Queens)
Buttons (Bowery)
JoJo (Bronx)
Tommy (East Side)
in my opinion, automatically everyone who got an entire borough or a bigger area has some role in the bigger group. Which means Race, Mush, Specs, and JoJo are all slightly more important. Probably the older newsies, 16-17, take more responsibilities, so on. But I got an idea in my head that each of them have a specific job that they centralize in, so here are my headcanons/thoughts, whatever.
JoJo: Lodgehouse duties
Assistants: Buttons, and Crutchie, and Davey when his mothering instincts are on a high
ok as you can probably tell by who’s listed that this is The Most Mom Job
the three of them, with Jo in charge, usually get up first in the morning to get everyone else up, make sure everyone has what they need for the day, “did you shave”, “did you shower this morning”, etc.
makes sure everyone gets at least something from the nuns each morning.
some kid has a nightmare, argument happening, bunk disagreements, someone accuses someone Race for cheating at poker that night….you get the Mom Squadron’s verdict as a last resort, and then it’s settled.
Specs: kind of a…spy division?
Assistants: Sniper, Mike, Ike, Finch
this is a pretty cool squadron
Jack needs some info about what’s happening in the other boroughs, these guys scatter through the city, know it like the back of their hand.
if there’s some sort of trouble, at least two of them (buddy system, guys) go find some reinforcements
also, they spread information to other places as well. they’re kind of messengers!
also a bit of a mom group. they tend to spy on their own boys tbh so they know the Lower Manhattan Tea allll the time bitch don’t get Finch STARTED
they know all the city’s gossip! which is useful when it comes to selling spots for the day
that reminds me—they announce the best selling spots of the day each morning, even though most newsies have a specific area they mainly go to.
Mush: Soakers
Assistants: Albert, Tommy, Smalls, Finch
some motherfuckin ass kickers
yeah that’s right I said smalls that girl would break a rib for a dime
so! Mush, throughout the musical, seems the most ready to fight. he’s seen being held back by Davey when the scabs come out, one of the more sturdy newsies in Manhattan, and he jus seems to have a more violent personality? (“now there’s a headline even elmer could sell” *makes fist*, yanking their front page paper away from anyone who tries grabbing it from him, that look he shoots Race after “the further away form you I sleep” is so deadly)
so in other words he’s in charge of them
but between you and me he’s co-leader with Albert.
bein’ race’s boyfriend has its hierarchy perks, dasilva. also he’s soooo cut out for that job too bad he got there after Mush
they scout out safe areas for selling, where less trouble is.
so they sometimes do find themselves in Dangerous Areas of NYC and then gotta come back with a bruise and be like “hey yeah maybe don’t sell on this corner of the Bronx today” or something
when the newsies do need to fight it’s usually all of them, but this is the front line.
Also, these guys? pretty much in charge of the Delanceys bullshit. they start causing something, these are the people gaining control of the situation and shutting it down quickly.
would die for any of the others in a heartbeat
most of them come from pretty rough backgrounds (finch having literally ran away from a probably abusive household and albert probably stuck living in one hence why he stays at the lodgehouse a lot)
always have some sort of eye on everyone, in a different way than the spy gang. they’re checking for bruises or marks that weren’t there before, or if some kid jumps every time someone yells….y’know. that kind of stuff. Race helps with this part.
Race: The bigger picture
Assistant: Finch
so that’s a misleading title
they’re in charge of head counts after each selling day
also check every name on the sign in list for the lodge
see they deal with the group and not as much individuals that’s why I said bigger picture
this also puts them in charge of group morale.
literally you see Race doing exactly his job in the show. that’s literally King of New York.
now Finch….Finch has sort of a different role for morale.
Albert might be Race’s best friend, but Finch is almost like an exact opposite for Race.
in the musical, he’s the one asking the common sense questions, shows the most concern for the group
“half them workers are laid up with broke bones”
“they wanted proof we ain’t gonna fold at the first sign of trouble” “are we?”
before Davey came along, Finch was the “brains” of the group. but since he didn’t have much schooling, his smarts were more common sense based than Davey’s bookish smarts.
and so Race is the opposite because he’s a goddamn idiot
so they’re each other’s balances, which evens out the group as a whole.
some miscellaneous things I was thinkin about
this is my biggest one so I’ll just start off with this:
albert’s in charge of the Delancey info. jack usually wants to know what they either know or are thinking so the group can know how they’ll be treated next.
al’s the one who knew about the rumor spreading through them about jack running off after the big fight, right.
that’s cause it’s his job
I have this really bigass headcanon that involves a shit ton of backstory that Al’s family and the Delancey family used to be close when the kids were much younger and then they had a huge falling out but that’s besides the point right @iconicmusicalquote ahaha yeeeeah
Finch switches jobs a lot. he’s mainly Race’s right hand, but as you can see I’ve put him down for other jobs as well. he’s a versatile young man and he’s been here too damn long
the soakers were really torn up about Tommy scabbing for a hot sec there. they weren’t sure if they could trust him to help out with the job, but eventually forgave him because they fucking needed him I mean look at that boy hot damn
i know some of y’all are like “where’s Elmer” and so was I until I realized he’s definitely the newest newsie and does not have a job yet so I’m justified
so ok to reiterate
Main leaders:
Jack, Davey, Race, Finch (used to have Davey’s place so they aren’t gonna just demote him since that’s rude), and kind of Crutchie? he gets to go to all the important meetings. no one else knows why and they’re all jealous
Sub Leaders
Mush/Albert, Specs, and JoJo
yeah that’s it
I just saw this and....Mush and Albert are literally teaming up to fight the Delanceys I DIDNT PLAN THIS
Seriously what is this telepathic shit
