The upbeat Disney music flowing out of the doors of the iconic Nederlander Theater was the start to a high energy, fun and engaging night. The show was Disney’s Newsies, set in 1899 during the New York newsboy revolt follows a group of young newsboys who stand up for themselves by organizing a city wide strike. The story is told well, easily understandable and captivating. However, there is a love story between leader of the strike, Jake Kelly, and writer Katherine. This aspect of the plot is severely underdeveloped and deserves more than a few minutes to fully come into play and affect the audience. A few more scenes focused on this forming relationship would most definitely add another layer to the plot.

The music of this musical was also subpar to many of the other Broadway shows out there today. Many of tunes sounded extremely alike and just several days after the show I already cannot differentiate the different songs in my head. Untypical of a Broadway show, the lyrics to many of the songs were not stuck in every audience member’s head after the show. The music was just not as catchy as it is for many other shows. By far, one of the strongest aspects of the show was the dancing. Many of the performers have mastered flips, turns and jumps making the show very high energy. Quite frequently there was somebody flipping across the stage or turning endlessly. Many high energy group numbers showcased everybody’s mastery of choreography. There were even a few tap numbers thrown into the repertoire. All in all,  even though several aspects of the performance did not live up to some Broadway expectations, the show was fun and engaging to watch with its numerous dance and acrobatic routines as well as some one-liners from the casts’ youngest member, Les.