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Hit musical Newsies takes to Chatelech stage

The Broadway musical Newsies is the latest large-scale production to be taken on by the ambitious School District No. 46 (SD46) Music Theatre Ensemble, with seven shows at Chatelech Secondary School Theatre from Friday, Feb. 28 to Saturday, March 7.
newsies
A cast of nearly 60, plus a live band and backstage crew, are part of the SD46 musical production of Newsies.

The Broadway musical Newsies is the latest large-scale production to be taken on by the ambitious School District No. 46 (SD46) Music Theatre Ensemble, with seven shows at Chatelech Secondary School Theatre from Friday, Feb. 28 to Saturday, March 7. 

Newsies tells the story of the pivotal New York City newspaper sellers’ strike of 1899, with magnate Joseph Pulitzer as the villain and rebellious newsboy Jack Kelly as the hero, enabled by crusading reporter Katherine Plumber. When Pulitzer and other owners start charging the impoverished newsboys a higher wholesale price, Kelly and the kids unionize and strike. 

“It’s such a relevant show,” teacher and show director Sara Douglas told Coast Reporter. “The 1899 newsboy strike started the movement against child labour in the United States. When the newsboys went on strike against Pulitzer and [Randolph] Hearst and the other guys, it was monumental. It was violent and very scary for the kids, but they persevered and changed the face of child labour.” 

The Newsies musical started as a 1992 Disney film that initially flopped at the box office but became a home-video favourite and recouped its production budget. Twenty years later Disney mounted it as a stage production, and it was a hit again, with more than 1,000 performances on Broadway alone. 

The SD46 show follows the ensemble’s successful 2019 production of Fiddler on the Roof. This cast is even larger. “We have just under 60 kids on stage and a bunch backstage,” Douglas said. “We had 57 on stage last year. So, it’s a little bigger, and there are lots of young ones, lots of Grade 7s and Grade 8s. And we have some Grade 10s who’ve taken on lead roles this year.” 

As with Fiddler on the Roof, there is no pre-recorded musical accompaniment. That’s provided by a four-piece band led by music teacher and conductor Tom Kellough on piano. 

“These kids are committed. It’s a lot of notes for them to learn. And they’ve been working hard since the fall,” said Kellough, who praised the show’s musical quality. “It’s the same guy [Alan Menken] who wrote Little Shop of Horrors and Beauty and the Beast.” Added Douglas: “The songs are so incredibly moving. Even if you don’t know the show, you’re going to come away singing these songs.” 

Douglas wanted to publicly thank Unifor Local 1119 for its help, after it donated to the production and bought up all the tickets for the Thursday, March 5 show. “That’s just phenomenal support from the community,” she said. 

Tickets for the six other shows, including two matinées, are $10 and are available at Strait Music in Sechelt and from any member of the production, or online at www.share-there.com