Newsies

A failed effort to revive the big-budget movie musical, Newsies attempted to create toe-tapping, song-and-dance excitement out of the true story of an 1899 strike by newspaper boys against publishing magnate Joseph Pulitzer. The "newsies" band together to protest a pay cut by Pulitzer (Robert ...more

Touted by its makers as an attempt to bring live-action musical motion-pictures into the '90s, Newsies fails not because it lacks what the great musicals of the past had, but because it inserts nothing new into the genre, simply rehashing the archetypes and clichés that beat movie musicals to death in the first place. But just because it didn't incite '90s remakes of Bye Bye Birdie and Singin' in the Rain doesn't mean Newsies is completely worthless. For fans who enjoy even the more mediocre ...more