Crawfordsville High School presents “Newsies!: The Musical” this weekend. Shows are 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
“Newsies” is loosely based on the 1899 newsboys strike in Manhattan. Jack Kelly (Eli Reeves) faces the struggles of child labor when the newspaper mogul Joseph Pulitzer (Josh Hacker) of the “New York World” raises the prices that the newsboys have to pay for papers from his distribution center.
While Jack is escaping from his juvy Warden Snyder (Vanessa Pineda Sanchez), he spots a young female reporter named Katherine Plummer (Gracie Leonard) and charms her. Jack goes on to unionize the newsies, but most won’t comply until the leader of the Brooklyn newsies, Spot Conlins (Jesse Watson) gives the okay.
Katherine decides to cover the story and reports that the police had beaten and battered the newsies after an attempted protest. Pulitzer offers Jack enough money to make it to Santa Fe if he calls off the strike. Next morning Spot leads the rest of the newsies into the action to protest, but Jack reluctantly tries to stop them, takes the Santa Fe money and heads up to his rooftop home.
Katherine meets him there and together they work through a plan to print their own newspaper using Jack’s drawings of the abuses he has faced. When their paper reaches Gov. Theodore Roosevelt (Steve Frees), he comes in full support of the newsies and offers Pulitzer an ultimatum. Pulitzer agrees to the terms and the rest is history.
Tickets are presale only and school policy is that masks must be worn and social distancing guidelines are in effect.
Purchase tickets by going to https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/43472?fbclid=IwAR1oiRbEQpqXujBxFmwQBGQ6sQ3_DG3g1LQqFJ9IRLuAJorzQLLRStln0Sg.
