I know the Broadway adaptation of the film Newsies is one that a lot of my friends in musical theatre roll their eyes at when they hear it is being put on by a company. There’s no question that it is performed a lot and I can understand why some people are sick of it. However, it is a show I have a lot of nostalgia for being a big fan of the movie and the pro-shot with Jeremy Jordan. It’s still a fun, energetic show if you ask me. Yesterday I had the chance to see a performance of Newsies at Heritage Theatre in Perry and is everything one could want in an evening of community theatre.

Heritage in many ways is an ideal community theatre venue. They still have a homespun charm to them but they are constantly innovating and challenging themselves. With Newsies, director and choreographer Alyn Bone seems to have thought of everything from having a live band accompany them, to large tap dancing number for “King of New York” with the entire ensemble wearing tap shoes, to completely hand-made sets (no projections.) It helps make a show like Newsies less predictable and more exciting.

The young cast is also fantastic in this production. I noticed in the program many of the young men and women are making their Heritage debuts but had worked in local high school productions. I am sure as this theater continues to challenges themselves and produce such good work more talent young and old will be anxious to work for them. This group of teens is led by Corbyn Macari as Jack Kelly and he’s honestly one of the best Jacks I’ve seen. He’s charismatic and charming while still pulling off the more vulnerable moments like when he reads Crutchie’s letter in “Letter from the Refuge” or of course in “Santa Fe.”

The stage at Heritage is small which makes it all the more impressive how many Newsies boy and girls are singing in dancing in songs like “Carrying the Banner” and “King of New York.” It’s a blast and like I said the live band just makes everything better. Other standouts in the cast are Matt Child as Crutchie and Tanner Jeppson as Davey. If I was going to give some advice it would just be to make sure to enunciate as clearly as possible when laying on those thick New York accents.

Also did I mention tickets at Heritage are as low as $10. You can barely see a movie for that price these days. Even if you think you’ve seen Newsies too many times I recommend giving this production a shot. It’s just that entertaining. It is playing through June 28th and tickets can be purchased here.

Newsies has music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Jack Feldman and a book by Harvey Firestein based on the 1992 film.

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