Writing

A weekly newsletter of curated theatre news and pop culture content. Published on Monday nights.

An Oral History on the creation, challenges, and unlikely successes of Newsies the Musical from 1992 movie to Broadway phenomenon. Includes nearly 50 interviews, including conversations with Alan Menken, Harvey Fierstein, Jeremy Jordan, Kara Lindsay, Tom Schumacher, and more.

"In our final moments in the store, Lester decides she is going to take home Corinne, American Girl’s Girl of the Year 2022. She wants to commemorate her own big year, one that is surely just the beginning in the promising career ahead of her. Surrounded by possibilities, and hundreds of dolls, Lester chose to stay in the moment, driven by passion and her own confidence. She was the Girl of the Year all along."

"It’s a Monday night at the Minskoff Theatre and I’m listening to 92 high school students sing Diana the Musical. To be fair, it’s not just Diana. There’s plenty of contemporary young adult musicals represented; Band Geeks, Spongebob Squarepants, Percy Jackson... Somehow, there’s also a gamut of Parade, Les Misérables, Next to Normal (who didn’t sing Next to Normal in high school?)."

"There’s a reason artists and audiences alike come back to this work over and over. Nothing needs to be fancy…one might as well present the show in their own apartment. The show itself (including the book by George Furth) introduces a microcosm of New York, a friend group in their mid-30s, with one single stuck in the middle of a sea of married couples. Here we follow Bobbi, unmarried and unsure of the concept as a whole. There’s longing, apathy, desire, and confusion, a combination that’s sure to strike a unique chord for each individual in the theatre."

"Ijames:  I think I was missing home. I was craving creating that kind of space. I think also, I like playing with the music of the way that people in the South speak, and trying to create a parallel between what Shakespeare was doing and what I think people in the South just do every day when they’re speaking to each other. This sort of very flowery way that people speak. And even inside of that, there’s like a lot of different varieties of the way that people speak." [note: shortly after conducting this interview, James Ijames won the Pulitzer Prize.]

"There is a distinct divide in audience members who have and will see the show: those who saw a performance prior to May 2, and those who bought tickets with the current events in mind. When I checked in with Leiby, post-Politico, the circumstances had clearly changed since the earliest performances…but not the content. If anything, that same objective remains, only becoming more vital at our current moment."

"KPOP The Musical is the most exciting, interesting, and alive show on Broadway right now. In a season of half-baked adaptations and Golden Age revival attempts, this exhilarating musical is a reminder of the importance of new works and contemporary stories. This musical knows exactly what it wants to be and the cast? They’re ready to win over your heart."