Executive editor {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Maybe the most special thing about newspapers, in 2024 at least, is that they're physical in nature. They're right in front of your face.
The Rev Theatre Company's production of "Newsies," which opened Wednesday night at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Owasco, is most certainly physical. The musical's turn-of-the-century newsboys dance like they're training for a fight, squatting and cocking their fists. That's because they're indeed preparing for a labor war with publisher Joseph Pulitzer after he hikes the price they must pay for their bundles of The New York World.
They swing their limbs so forcefully, and in such close quarters to each other, that I thought I spotted a glancing blow or two. But Adam Dyer's choreography also channels the youthful energy of the characters into thrillingly graceful movements, from pirouettes to a few vaults that received gasps from the audience. If this production of Disney's cult hit musical has a headline, then, it's that dancing.
As aggressive as it is artistic, Dyer's choreography and the cast's performance are worth the price of admission alone. What makes the cast even more impressive is the fact they leap and twirl without losing their signature caps from their heads, and with carrier bags loosely slung over their shoulders. As newsboy leader Jack Kelly, Eddie Falshaw has the charm to sell "papes" and solid pipes on.
