jac's muny newsies notes!
hello my friends! i have FINALLY had time to sit down and write up all of my notes i made. this show was so incredible and i am so glad that i got to see it- so here are some thoughts!! this is so long so i will have to put act 2 in a separate post </3 that post will be up later this evening, but i don't want this sitting in my drafts. (also- i had the script pulled up while writing these out!)
alright so starting off strong: jack roden is so good at stammering when he speaks and it added so much to jack i'm not sure if it happened on other nights, but when jack is talking to crutchie before the first song, when he's talking about his father, jack says: "they just- they- they tossed him to the curb like yesterday's paper." and as someone who loves a jack who loves his family so much it hurts, thatttt got me. he stammers on other lines too and its such a good choice for jack.
the screens they had on stage slowly changed from cool-toned NYC to warm-toned desert scenes as jack sings santa fe prologue and i loved that sm- not revolutionary but a beautiful visual
during SF(P), when crutchie sings "Watch me stand, watch me run..." jack hugs him, elbow over his right shoulder and chin on his left, and he does not let go of him until the end of the song. WAUGH. brothers.
crutchie sounded a bit like. nervous when the boys asked about his leg? less jokey when he says "eh, no rain..." and i think that's an interesting choice. maybe i'm reading into it but it leads well into the "i don't need a limp to sell papes" line, and he almost sounded like he was Proving it after the jokes. i loved it
there were so many jack and crutchie hugs in carrying the banner. they do not let go of each other. codependent brothers for real
carrying the banner as a whole was incredible and i wish i took more notes but i was too focused. the choreo was SO fun and Racer was really the one that caught my eye the most- you could sense he was jack's second in command (which comes up again later- the jack/crutchie/racer trio went HARD in this production)
when katherine shows up, jack looks smitten and looks even more in love when she's mean to him. like yeah thats them. and kayla's katherine may be my favorite katherine, she's so snarky and silly and excitable and doesn't take herself too seriously throughout the show- UGH i love her
when the delancey's show up, of course they toss crutchie to the ground but they also punch racer right off the bat and these guys were MEAN this time
it's been a minute since i watched any boots or the pro-shot so maybe this could be me not remembering, but when jack says "One unfortunate day you might find got a bum gam of your own," the music gets serious as HELL. jack looks like he's about to punch morris's lights out. like he looks Scary.
davey and les show up and bryce!davey immediately starts fussing with les's clothes to make him look more presentable- it should be noted here that davey is wearing a suit jacket that lowkey looked a little too big, a vest, and a nice button down shirt
and les is so TINY my GODDDD i cried
bryce's davey is so bitchy i love himmmm. when jack snatches his papes to count, davey looks pissed and tries to grab them back but jack steps out of his reach.
the delivery on "WHO says we want a PARTner?" and the tone is very accusatory, like he's offended jack would even assume, and he keeps that hot-headedness the rest of the show
when jack and les make the 60/40 deal, les does not even spare a glance back at davey before agreeing. this kid is a riot
okay so The Bottom Line. i don't have many notes but michael park is the perfect scary pulitzer.
"My father taught me not to lie." HELLOOOO CUNTY DAVEY! this whole scene has so much tension between jack!jack and bryce!davey. like it feels sort of like they hate each other, and they sort of square up with each other until les comes up, but after this scene they're sort of all over each other. oh the javid of it all
it actually makes me want to throw up with how defeated jack roden sounds when he says, "Ya got folks, huh?"
jack is really quiet and can't meet davey's eyes when davey talks about their father, and looks wildly uncomfortable and small when davey invites him home for dinner. like i have never seen this level of Upset Jack before. jack roden sweetheart you know that kelly boy's depressed thank you !!!!! like i can't tell you how Desperate he sounds. he's sad and he's desperate and he's trying. i've seen a lot of angry jack kellys but this is just a boy doing his best and fumbling
jack sounds terrified when he says "run for it" and snyder. fucking. the ferocity in which he yells "kelly!" with actually made me scared
davey is ANGRYYY when he says "Someone wanna tell me why I'm runnin'?!" - also, side note, i do this too and i need to get better about it, but the fandom makes davey sound so prim and proper that it's so fun to hear him talking with an accent and sounding like a Teenage Boy instead of a librarian
oh medda. first of all she's GORGEOUS. second of all she cares so deeply for jack. she looks so excited to see him but gets Very somber and serious, and quiet, like she doesn't want david and les to hear, when she asks, "Is Snyder after you again?"
jack looks so embarrassed and small when medda talks about the backdrops he painted for her
when jack sees katherine, he leaves david and les to talk to miss medda by themselves and she looks so delighted to chat with them
GAHHHHH they did a freeze frame in the first verse of Never Planned on You. the bowery beauties are frozen. katherine is frozen. the only person moving is jack and he is so fixated on her. he's not even drawing at this point- doesn't start drawing until verse two- and this might not be novel but i thought that the freeze was the PERFECT way to show how gone over her jack is. like this is a loverboy through and through. i think it was a lot more impactful than jack singing while katherine writes in the proshot
also jack is There when she picks up the drawing. he stares at her with this dopey grin when she picks it up. he Wants to see her reaction instead of running off and that killed me.
they see the new headline blah blah but when crutchie says "We got the right to starve. ... Let's hit the streets while we still can." he sounds so nervous and starts booking it across stage
bryce!davey is such a lil bitch he LAUGHS a little bit when he says "You mean like a strike?"
the distance between jack and davey when they're arguing about the strike... they're so far apart but jack got closer when he said "Bet if your father had a union you wouldn't be out here sellin' papes right now. Yeah?" and davey looks so tense and forlorn when he replies with a quiet, "...Yeah." like OHHHUUGHH you could FEEL bryce!davey saying "this is unfair and i shouldn't be here and i'm angry" it was INCREDIBLE
not to be that person but i'm gonna be that person. this is a black davey saying the line "They need to understand that we're not enslaved to them. We're free agents." ohhh my GOD. YEAH YEAHHH
davey YELLS "No!!" when the boys start talking about beating up scabbers. like bryce gets LOUD with it
when kath walks into jacobi's, jack lets out a nervous little laugh as he says "What're you doin' here?" like okayyyy just kiss already
crutchie and davey are super close in this scene and making expressions at each other and crutchie hits davey with his hat when he says, "I got a nickel." like crutchie is so close and so touchy with all of these boys- especially jack and race- and he's so integral to their group im gonna be sick
katherine is so desperate when she's talking to the boys, and after she's very sweet to jack even though he's like. UGH. he's so obviously afraid to be vulnerable. sounds so self-deprecating when he says "I'm the blowhard. Davey's the brains," and he sounds genuinely nervous when he says "Do I look scared?... Ask me again in the mornin'." like YESSS LET HER IN !!! LET HER KNOW YOU HAVE EMOTIONS UGH
i have no notes for watch what happens aside from the fact that kayla!kath is hopeful and positive and excited and kind of a mess and she's so human and REAL and she keeps squealing like. OH my baby. katie p i love you
one thing i liked a lot is when muny newsies talk about spot conlon they're not afraid to use she/her pronouns for her. uksies tried hard to keep it ambiguous so there was a lot of clunky dialogue choices imo but they say "sure we seen her" and it sounds so natural
oh my god bryce's seize the day. his voice sounds remarkably like ben fank but still so Himself. like i couldn't take good notes bc i was crying. and when jack and davey sing "You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you," racer puts his arm around Crutchie, which is so sweet considering race just called his crutch with the "STRIKE" banner written on it pitiful. like this racer feels like such an older brother figure.
when the scabbers show up and jack is giving his little speech, jack roden!jack sounds so desperate and sad and broken when he says "Ain't no crime to bein' poor," and i actually feel sick about that, i've only ever heard it said in an angry sort of desperation but this is a kid who is trying to claw his way out
before the police show up in the seize the day fight scene, the delancey's grab les, he starts yelling "HELP," and davey comes up and just fucking decks the both of them. he looks so surprised that he did it too and has to sort of jolt himself back into reality
davey is also the one to help katherine get away from the fight- he physically blocks her with his body as they run to the edge of the stage, waits a second to watch her run off, and comes back to the fight
there is so much going on in the fight choreo that i can't point out specifics and i wish i could analyze every frame for the rest of my life- but when they get crutchie at the very end, they hit him in the head with his own crutch. he fights it and his fighting gets weaker and then he's unconscious. he's taken off stage. i wanted to throw up.
jack is alone onstage when santa fe starts, not yet in his penthouse. he's at the edge of the stage freaking out and drops to his knees after "Captain Jack just wants to close his eyes and GO." and he's on his knees for a whileeee after that, panting and crying and stumbling through the rest of the song. he ends on the penthouse and looks genuinely frustrated with himself when he sings "...though I know that's all I seem inclined to do," like his hands are waving a bit as if he's pissed off at himself. obviously he is but it sounds like he's trying SO hard, BEGGING himself, to stop dreaming. this is a kid who knows exactly how to fix himself if he would just keep his head out of the goddamn clouds but he CAN'T and he's torturing himself because of it. jack roden. you Get jack kelly and you barely had time to prepare.
this is all i can write on act 1. this was the best live show i've ever seen and it was so worth it. i will post act 2 thoughts later this evening!!
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