With strong ticket sales, eight Tony Award nominations and good reviews and word of mouth among theater-goers, the new Disney musical “Newsies” will plunge ahead with an open-ended run on Broadway rather than close Aug. 19 as previously announced, the producers of the show said on Wednesday.
The August closing date had been something of a spurious notion ever since “Newsies” – about a group of New York City newspaper hawkers on strike against a media baron at the turn of the 20th century – started setting box-office records in April at the Nederlander Theater. Yet Disney Theatrical Productions has tried to manage expectations about the musical from the get-go since it was not developed to be a big Broadway show. It was intended to be a licensable title for regional theaters and schools until several critics raved about its debut last fall at Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J.; that production transferred largely intact to Broadway.
Since performances began about nine weeks ago the $5 million production has grossed about $7.9 million – one of the best financial track records of any show that opened this season. Starting Monday single tickets will be on sale through Nov. 18 and group sales will be made through Jan. 6 – the sort of parameters for open-ended runs for many Broadway musicals. The current cast is scheduled to stay with the production.
The show received Tony nominations this month for best musical, score (music by the Academy Award winner Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman), book (by the Tony winner Harvey Fierstein), and lead actor (Jeremy Jordan as the scrappy newsboy Jack Kelly, who leads the strike), among other categories. The announcement comes as many of the 851 Tony voters are seeing “Newsies” and other nominated shows to prepare their ballots before the June 10 awards ceremony.
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