”Newsies” is a sympathetic attempt to dust off the big book musicals that dominated Hollywood in the early `60s-”Oliver!” specifically, and also ”Mary Poppins,” ”West Side Story” and ”The Sound of Music”-but director Kenny Ortega doesn`t quite succeed in making the form work for a new audience.
There has been a development since then, known as the music video, and as a choreographer Ortega has contributed heavily to it, through his work with Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel and Madonna.
The smooth integration of song and storytelling that defines a musical like ”Oliver!” (or should) is defeated by the short-hit format of MTV, where the aim is not to advance a plot line but to showcase a star.
There are no stars in ”Newsies,” which may explain why the numbers so often look like backgrounds from which the leading performer has for some reason been electronically removed. Huge choruses of flying, kicking teenagers dance with impressive energy and precision, though in their regimented anonymity they seem meant to set off a star turn that doesn`t exist.
The look of ”Newsies,” with its narrow, crowded streets, dark alleys and teeming tenement buildings, suggests the Dickensian London of ”Oliver!”, though the film is actually set in New York in 1899. Ruthless newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer (a distracted Robert Duvall) has just decided to increase his profit margin by raising the rate at which he wholesales his paper to the boys-the ”newsies”-who sell it on the street.
With the fiery, charismatic Jack Kelly (Christian Bale, considerably grown up from ”Empire of the Sun” and equipped with a stage Brooklyn accent) to lead the troops and the sensitive, thoughtful David Jacobs (David Moscow)
to provide strategy and direction, the newsies go on strike.
When Pulitzer hires goons to break the picket lines, the dispute turns violent, the passions more inflamed, and hopes less alive. It`s then that Jack turns to David`s teenage sister, Sarah (Ele Keats) for comfort, sharing with her his dream of moving on to the golden West.
That dream is also responsible for the film`s finest musical number, a plaintive ballad titled ”Santa Fe” that Bale performs while wandering, Gene Kelly-style, down a dark and indifferent city street.
The songs, which where composed by Alan Menken (”Beauty and the Beast”) and given words by Jack Feldman, don`t linger in the mind otherwise. Most of them are strident exhortations to bind together and defeat the bosses, which seem like pure, naive nostalgia in the Reagan-Bush era of union busting.
Though the cast is large, no interesting or even moderately well-rounded personalities emerge from it, and no compelling relationships emerge between the characters. As much as the film may try to peddle warmth and solidarity, it remains disturbingly cold and impersonal, limited by the formulaic writing of Bob Tzudiker and Noni White and stymied by Ortega`s apparent distance from his cast. The performances are narrow, too cute and largely unappealing.
At times, cinematographer Andrew Laszlo gives ”Newsies” so dark a look that it`s difficult to distinguish among the supporting players, or even be certain that they`re in the frame. Luke Edwards, Max Casella, Marty Belafsky and Gabriel Damon are among the young performers who make pleasant, if vague, impressions; Bill Pullman, Ann-Margret, Jeffrey DeMunn and Charles Cioffi are supportive adults.
”NEWSIES”
(STAR)(STAR)
Directed by Kenny Ortega; written by Bob Tzudiker & Noni White; photographed by Andrew Laszlo; production designed by William Sandell; edited by William Reynolds; original songs: music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman;
score by J.A.C. Redford; produced by Michael Finnell. A Walt Disney Pictures release; opens April 10 at the Water Tower, Webster Place and outlying theaters. Running time: 2:01. MPAA rating: PG.
THE CAST
Jack Kelly……………………………………………..Christian Bale David Jacobs……………………………………………..David Moscow Kid Blink…………………………………………………Trey Parker Racetrack…………………………………………………Max Casella Bryan Denton……………………………………………..Bill Pullman Medda Larkson…………………………… ………………..Ann-Margret Joseph Pulitzer………………………………………….Robert Duvall
