Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and to Music Fridays. Today, I'm introducing a new segment, simply titled Screen Vs. Stage, where I take a film that was later adapted by Disney into a stage production and compare the musical numbers and today, I'm getting things off by looking at one of my favorite musicals that would later become one of my favorite plays as I compare the music of Newsies. Now seeing as there were new songs written for the play, I will not be looking at those and I will be going by the film's song order, even though the play may have a different track order and oh, I'm excluding reprises. Let's begin.
This number really sets the tone for the movie and what to expect and you get to meet the boys in this number and get to know them and it does a good job of introducing each character as you get to know them and it is just so upbeat and infectious that I find myself singing along. There's really not much more I can say on it other than that. Sure, it does get a repetitive in certain areas but it's still a great number. All of the boys do a great number singing in this number but there are things that left me confused such as the Nuns coming and saying Jesus will save you. That felt like it came out of nowhere.
They are essentially the same song and while I love the movie, I almost think that the play has better singing quality here. Not knocking the actors in the movie as I love but something about the play is just a bit more infectious and the play actually fixed my complaint about the nuns as by showing bringing drinks to the Newsies and thus explaining why they were there. This is easily one of the best numbers in the show and yeah, I gotta give it to the Stage in this round.
This is one of the greatest numbers in the movie and yeah, it's an "I Want" song but it is so heartbreaking as Jack just wants to get out of here and get a better life for himself as he's never had a real family. All of his life, he's felt beaten down and like no one has given him a fair chance.
The song in the play takes on a different meaning as Jack beats himself up over not being able to protect his fellow Newsies, who he views as his brothers and he wants to escape and leave because he's feel that he can't be the leader that his brothers need. Honestly, this version can bring me to tears. This is just so sad because you can just hear Jack beating himself up and Santa Fe in both the movie and the play are an escape to a better life but in the play, Santa Fe is also ans escape for Jack to hide that he's scared. I have to give this round to the stage.
This is easily in my opinion, the worst song in the film, I have nothing against Ann-Margaret and she does a fine job in the role of Medda Larkson but she was one of my two least favorite characters in the film. And I get what this was supposed to be but it's just so boring and takes me out of the story. I mean, with Medda, she's an old family friend of Jack's and she's letting him hide from being caught by guys that are chasing him but this number has nothing to do with the rest of the film.
One of the biggest improvements from screen to stage was Medda and her song from the film was thankfully dropped and replaced with this much better number that is funny, has a lot of life to it, and is very vibrant and lively. Again, like Medda's song from the film, it has no barring on the overall plot but I'm willing to give it a pass as it's more enjoyable. And yeah, I know these are two different songs but they're sung by the same character and have the same idea of showing off who she is and what her show is like and in that regard, stage wins.
This is the song, where the boys come together as union to fight Pulitzer and Hearst and this is where they decide to go on strike and Jack is made the leader. In the movie, this song comes after Santa Fe but in the play, the order is switched, giving the songs different meanings. Honestly, this is in my opinion, one of the two best songs in the movie.
For all intents and purposes, this version is better and the singing is more powerful but I don't know, I love it but I gotta go with the movie on this one. It's hard because this is just as good but if I were forced to choose the version of this (which I am), I'd listen to the movie version over the stage version. Both are excellent but I just prefer the film version. So, this goes to the screen.
This is my other favorite song from Newsies and many fans consider this number to be the anthem of the film and it's not hard to see why. This number perfectly goes hand in hand with the previous song as again, you see the boys coming together and uniting, and saying we aren't going to take the way, you've been treating us any longer.
I gotta be honest and say that this is the hardest vote because again, this number is equally as good as the film version. Ugh, I don't know I like them both but which one, which one, which one. The dance break in the middle of this one is really cool with how they dance on the newspapers and again, it does a good job of uniting the boys but at the same the time, the movie version is one of my all time favorite Disney songs and I loved that version first but this version is just as much fun. I gotta go with the movie, so this one goes to screen.
This was the hardest one to make my mind up on as they are both great.
This one is the better version because this one is about one of my favorite characters from the film, Brian Denton, the only news reporter that was willing to take on the boys' story and report and he became a father figure to the Newsies and this version is the boys celebrating the only one that would stand up for them and this version is better because Denton got cut from the play. Yeah, I'm biased but he's one of the best characters in the movie.
Again, this number isn't bad but my bias towards Denton is going to make me choose the film version over this one and as I mentioned, Denton was scrapped from the play and replaced with a female news reporter that also replaced the bland love interest from the film and became Jack's new love interest. That was an improvement but still, I gotta go with the screen version.
Once and For All - Screen
I really do like this song and it's a great number, where the boys have finally reached their limit and aren't going to take it anymore but I do have one minor and I extremely minor nitpick. I get what the film was going for having this be a montage and having the song be sung over the montage felt like an odd choice to me as none of the other songs in the film were like that.
Once and For All - Stage
I like this number better as I find that it has more intensity to it and being a stage production, it fixes my minor issue that I had with the film version. I just feel that the stage version has more anger to it, which is needed to fuel the boys' anger towards the situation. So, this version goes to the stage.
So, by a score of 4 -3, the Stage version takes the win. Again, I like both the film and the play and they are both great soundtracks but the stage adaption improved upon some of the mistakes from the film and made it a better story and gave the songs a better chance to shine. Both are great and if you've never seen the film, I would track it down and the play is now touring. From this Fansie, I love Newises and this was a blast to do . Let me know, if you'd like to see more of these in the future.
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