The Broadway musical Newsies is said to be hitting the capital’s West End with leaps, kicks and turns in the spring of 2014. As a result of this exciting transfer, the hit show, by Harvey Fierstein, will be scouting for UK dance talent to fill the dancing shoes of the production’s esteemed Broadway dancers.
The producers will be holding open auditions in order to find their cast for the show, which is based on the 1992 Disney film starring Christian Bale, reminding many theatre-lovers of the ‘cattle market’ style auditions conducted for A Chorus Line in which hundreds of enthusiastic performers queued for many hours. Newsies requires just two male dancers, insinuating that these auditions will find them in possibly worse conditions than those for A Chorus Line.
Newsies is currently running at the 1,200 seat Nederlander Theatre on Broadway, and tells the story of the real-life newsboy strike of 1899 as the boys’ leader fights against big-time publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. The show – it has been reported in the arts press – is aiming to open at either the Piccadilly or the Savoy Theatre next year, following two open auditions on 17 June 2013 at Pineapple Dance Studios in the heart of the West End. The auditions are hoped to produce two trained dancers with excellent ballet technique and dance talent, capable of playing ages between 16 and 22 years old.
The production, also containing acrobatics, tap dancing and a huge amount of energy, won two Tony Awards in 2012, one of which was for Christopher Gattelli’s choreography and the other for Alan Menken and Jack Fieldman’s score. The show was originally intended as a regional production and had a trial run in New Jersey in 2011 which was followed by its transfer to Broadway in 2012 and the nominations for five other Tony Awards.
Images courtesy of Wikipedia.