Philomath High students will grace the stage of their auditorium this week “Newsies” — a musical that tells the story of New York newsboys who go on strike against newspaper heavyweights in the late 1890s.
“Newsies” will be performed at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $7 at the door, which will open 30 minutes prior to the opening curtain. The event serves as a fundraiser for future student productions with a list of expenses that includes the steep cost of licensing rights to put on the show.
Gallery: PHS musical ‘Newsies’ (Nov. 28, 2023)
A collection of photos from a dress rehearsal of Philomath High’s production of “Newsies” on Tuesday, Nov. 28.
Director Shannon Webb and the support staff are working with more than 30 students in cast and crew positions.
“We have a significant number of people that are volunteers,” Webb said. “This is definitely an organization where it takes a village — it cannot be done with one person. … It needs a team because everyone has a piece to play like music director or choreographer or set design and costume design and so many of them are volunteers.”
The group of directors came together and settled on “Newsies” as a good fit for a high school musical — even thinking ahead to how individual students might match up with specific characters.
“This is really hot right now,” Webb said about the musical, which local students have been working on since late September. “The West Albany performing arts community theater put it on this summer and Corvallis High School is putting it on in the winter. … It’s not every year that we try to do the same ones; we try to do something different from them.”
“Newsies” is loosely based on the true story of the newsboy strike in 1899 that was staged as a way to try to change the way that publishers Joseph Pulitzer and Willam Randolph Hearst were compensating them for hawking newspapers — an essential method of distribution in those days. The publishers had raised the cost of a newsboy’s bundle of newspapers, which cut into profit margins.
The event was the inspiration behind the 1992 Disney movie, “Newsies,” which was later adapted for Broadway in 2012.
The cast watched a video of the Broadway show during early preparation stages.
“We had like a four-hour practice, maybe it was five, but we practiced for several hours and in the last hour, we watched it here in the high school,” PHS junior Brooke McDaniel said. “You could see how the Broadway people portrayed their characters and you could take those things and tricks that they did and implement them for yourself.”
Bailey Bell, a PHS senior who is appearing in her 10th high school or middle school production, plays the part of Davey in the A cast and Romeo and Specs and in the B cast. Davey is a teenager that starts selling newspapers to help his family earn a living but becomes swept up in the strike and represents the brains behind the resistance.
“It’s really fun because it’s totally different from who I am in real life and I really enjoy that,” Bell said. “And you know, the newsies are very much like a family and that’s fun to portray that on stage, that brotherhood.”
Bell is among those with a solo singing performance. But with so much experience on stage — a past that includes summer camp productions beyond the 10 school shows — she no longer gets nervous and embraces the opportunity.
“Some of the scenes are a little bit more difficult in this show,” Bell said when asked about the toughest part of playing Davey. “There are longer talking scenes in between the songs and I’ve been working a lot to make it feel smooth and not dip down in energy as the show progresses.”
Freshman Gunner Eveland plays the role of Wiesel in both casts. His character, which he describes as having “a sinister thing to him,” runs the distribution window for Pulitzer’s New York World.
“I like that I can bring my own vibe to it because he’s kind of evil — but not as evil because he kind of roots for the newsies at the end,” Eveland said while describing how Wiesel evolves through the show.
Eveland is in his first high school production after performing in a couple of middle school plays.
“I feel like I can just be a new person on stage,” he said when asked what he enjoys about acting. “I like to be in front of people … sometimes I get a little bit jittery but once I’m on there, it’s just a lot of fun.”
McDaniel landed the role of Katherine Plumber, a young reporter working hard to make a name for herself in journalism, in the production’s B cast.
“I love that I get to portray someone who’s a strong, independent female in a time when that wasn’t a normal thing,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel, who has been on stage since the sixth grade, plays various background roles in the A cast. She sings a solo, “Watch What Happens,” as part of her B-cast portrayal of Katherine. Asked about the biggest challenge with the show, she responded “just learning the song and how to deliver it completely.”
Performing in the role of strike leader Jack Kelly are junior Jackson Rice in the A cast and sophomore Ike Avery in the B cast.
