Newspaper hawkers, or “newsies”, belong to a bygone age but the issues in this US musical about their 1899 strike are today’s headlines. Quandaries of industrial action, the struggle for unionisation and crises of homelessness and child exploitation feature in the story, based on a 1992 film flop starring a teenage Christian Bale.
In the musical – which reaches the UK 10 years after Broadway – we find Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World, callously delighting in a “genius” plan to increase profits by raising the price newsies pay for the papers they sell. (The plot muddies history as the hike came during a boom in circulation due to the Spanish-American war so was eased by increased sales for hawkers.) The trim to newsies’ earnings is neatly contemplated from his barber’s chair but as Pulitzer, Cameron Blakely is given little more than a panto villain to play.
