Newsies is finally Seizing the Day!

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Alan Menken, Disney, gay, Jeremy Jordan, musical, Newsies, the view

If you were an 80s-90s kid like me, I hope you all have a fond place in your heart for the Disney musical film Newsies.  I absolutely loved this movie growing up and caught it whenever I could on the TV.  Originally appearing in movie theaters, it bombed big time for some reason…maybe because it wasn’t some big action film, or there wasn’t a new Disney princess to draw the kids in.  In any case, the soundtrack for this movie became a recurring staple in my music library and still does today.  In it’s tv run it also gathered quite a cult following, as it should have in my opinion.

Here’s the opening number to the film, called “Carrying the Banner.”  A great mix of song, dance, and an introduction to the story itself.  Basically, a true 1899 story of newsboys angry with newspaper giant Joseph Pulitzer charging them more for the papers they sell, and they decide to go on strike.  A real little dog going up against a big dog story.

The movie version had quite a few notable names:

Christian Bale (probably best known in the last batch of Batman films)

Max Casella (memorable as Neil Patrick Harris’ best friend on Doogie Howser M.D.)

Luke Edwards (who I remember distinctly from the same time period in the movie The Wizard with Fred Savage, Mario and the Power Glove lol)

Gabriel Damon (who is firmly rooted in my mind as that kid bad guy in Robocop 2)

and even Ann-Margret (who’s been in everything, but most familiar to me is the Grumpy/ier Old Men movies)

You couldn’t have made me more excited to hear that Alan Menken and others were planning on bringing this movie musical to the Broadway stage, finally!

Alan is the musical composer from the film and brought us a vast majority of the Disney soundtracks and stage musical song we’re familiar with.  Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King sound familiar, among others.

I remember reading that more theaters requested a stage version of “Newsies” than any other Disney title not yet adapted for theater and I can definitely see why.

It’s so fun, energetic, full of character personality, awesome songs and similarly awesome choreography that it baffles me why it didn’t happen before.

The dry run that started in September went well and I just heard on The View today that it’s getting a official run on Broadway coming up soon! Nice!

I so wish I could be in New York to see it when it opens, I can only hope that it gets great reviews and lasts for quite a while!

If you remember a post I did a while back called Will the Real Jeremy Jordan Please Stand Up, the Jeremy I pointed out that was going to be in the Dolly Parton/Queen Latifah film is also the Jeremy who took over the character of Jack Kelly (Christian Bale’s role).  Sadly, he’s not going to be returning for the official launch of the show as he has landed the lead role in another musical about to break out, Bonnie and Clyde.   I simply can’t wait I’m so excited, anyone who can support the show, give it some love!  It officially opens March 29th!!

I’m gonna leave a few more of the videos I’ve enjoyed detailing the show.  Anyone out there remember the film?  Own the soundtrack?  I would love to hear from some other fans!

Boy Has Got Some Demons

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Brandon Hantz, Disney Villains, Mikayla Wingle, reality tv, Survivor, the view, tv

For many years I’ve been a fan of the world within itself that is Disney.  More specifically I’ve held quite a bit of fondness for the Disney Villains.  Over the years I’ve collected as many items as I could possibly get by mail order, through the Disney Stores (back when they actually sold collectibles that weren’t just toys or mugs), and numerous Happy Meal toys when they were collectible and much better made than they are now.

I have a curio cabinet that displays the many porcelain villain figurines I’ve collected over the years.  The majority of them are of my favorite Ursula (from The Little Mermaid), but I have quite a few others represented (like Frollo above).  Judge Claude Frollo if you remember is the antagonist in the story and Disney film The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  In the movie, he’s portrayed as very religious man who intends to rid Paris of the gypsies who have “invaded” the city.  He’s very proud, self-assured, pompous and deems himself a godly man.  He also happens to be the caretaker of the hunchback Quasimodo who lives in and cannot stray from the confines of the bell tower.

After watching the Hot Topics segment on The View and having a short talk about it with the beau, I had a revelation.

This particular segment I am speaking of was concerning Survivor: South Pacific‘s Brandon Hantz and his fascination/dislike of my girl Mikayla on his tribe.  For the past two episodes, he has gave testimonies about how he’s not comfortable being around Mikayla because of feminine wiles, and how he doesn’t trust himself around her.  He talks about her flaunting herself and her body around camp to get her way, when in reality she’s just doing what every other girl (and guy) on Survivor has done…walk around in her underwear.  Her only fault being that she’s an attractive, strong female…which is not a fault at all.

He believes her to be a temptress, but really his issue is that he is the tempted.  He’s afraid to be around her because he’s married and may fall prey to getting intimate somehow with her.   Which of course is only possible if she were interested (which she’s not), or he would cheat on his wife (which we are led to believe that he may not be strong enough to resist if the “temptress” had her way).   To sum it all up, he’s attracted to her and is blaming her for his guilty feelings.  To eliminate her means that he would not have to feel tempted anymore, and thus maintain his “good christian” morals.

So to avoid this fate he’s been working hard to get the tribe to first see her as a threat (which no one does) and then in the second episode tries to move past the majority and push for her to be voted out (when she’s the strongest female on the tribe).  Which as we saw, backfires horribly with nary a vote going her way and Brandon looking like a douche for admitting to an attempt at a blindside without the actual backing.

I couldn’t help but think how this situation mirrored the position Judge Frollo put himself in during the movie.  He found himself in a position of power, set himself a moral code he must follow which sets himself above a minority of people, becomes lustfully attracted to a strong female he shouldn’t (Esmeralda), blames her for his feelings, and then tries to eliminate her to rid himself of these feelings he doesn’t want to deal with himself.

In the words of Whoopi Goldberg during the segment:

“GROW UP!”

I kind of hope there’s an “aha!” moment for Brandon in the future in which he deals with his issue with attractive women.  He has definitely set himself up (and the editors) to look like he holds to the idea that pretty girls who dress themselves attractively (or not in a modest way) are trying to be temptresses and luring men into their arms like sirens.  With no fault being on the guy, as he was cast under a spell.   I have a feeling that he’ll probably be voted out before that moment happens, but we just have to wait and see.

The tandem song “Heaven’s Light / Hellfire” totally came to mind as I was thinking of Brandon and his situation.  The “Hellfire” portion of the song is Frollo dealing with his feelings towards Esmeralda.  It almost fits in perfectly…well, everything but burning down Paris maybe.  But who knows how crazy Brandon is gonna get over this.  You can catch “Hellfire” starting at 2:07ish, but the “Heaven’s Light” part is just as pretty and much more wholesome.

I can only sum up this situation with a paraphrase Coach muttered after learning of Brandon’s lineage and his obsession with ousting Mikayla, “Boy has some demons.”