Alyssa Prydz

Jazz 1/Period 5
11/16/16
Dance Performance Critique
Newsies the Musical is a performance that will engage and make all audience members feel

enchanted by the absolutely fun-loving band of newsboys as they come together to strike against the

newly proposed price increase for newspapers. Newsies is a stage musical brought to you by Disney

Theatrical Productions, one of the major businesses in The Walt Disney Company. The setting takes

place during 1899 in New York City, with newsboys being negatively impacted by the sudden price

rise of up to 10 cents per newspaper. The newsboys become furious, and proceed to strike because of

the ridiculous price increase. Newsies is astonishing as it consists of a wide variety of dance such as

Tap, Modern, Ballet, and Jazz. These dancers are most definitely skilled at what they do as they had

to switch off from one to many different dance styles as well as master multiple acrobatic dance

moves.

As the actors had to change between multiple dance forms, they did an overall amazing job at

keeping in sync and having sharp as well as strong transitions. During most of the performance, the

show primarily consisted of Ballet and Jazz as the dancers used jazz hands, demonstrated lots of

energy, and displayed strong, upbeat movements. Ballet was also evident as there were many solos

that consisted of pirouettes and passe pirouettes. They additionally used Modern and Tap throughout

portions of the musical as they used their emotions to tell a story and danced more freely. There was

one scene where they incorporated precise and sharp rhythmic movements with their tap shoes. They

additionally used Modern dance to demonstrate the newsboys dissatisfaction with the rising cost of

newspapers, evoking a sense of anger through strong and powerful modern dance movements. The

dancers used legato in the movements to create a sense of frustration and urgency, using all the parts
of their body to express their emotions with pirouettes and straight out leaps. The choreography was

interesting and innovative as they used props to add significance to the dance. For example, they

danced with their feet on top of newspapers, and also integrated chairs and glass mugs to add

rhythmic significance when tap dancing. Overall, the use of various dance styles maintained the

interest of the audience captivating them with many diverse talents that the dancers displayed.

The performance and dance techniques were almost flawless with only a few minor and almost

unnoticeable exceptions. One mistake I noticed was when the dancers were shuffling on top of

newspapers, and then had to quickly jump off them and catch them in the air. However, one

performers newspaper was still on his foot so he had to quickly grab it and continue dancing.

Another mistake that I noticed was near the ending, when the actors had to unwrap the newspaper

and hold up the first page, but one man was unable to unwrap it quickly, so he held up the whole

bundle of newspapers instead of the the one sheet. I seemed to have become attentive to these

mistakes because they stood out and were different, and so I wanted to see what they were going to

do next. Nonetheless, the innovative dance techniques were made the performance look splendid.

The actors were really dynamic with their performance as they transitioned from one style of

dance to another with ease. They made it connect and flow throughout the entire performance. The

performers projected emotion and feeling through their dancing and facial expressions exuding a

feeling of discontent while being on strike. They showed anger and danced sharply to show that they

were not going to give up and used their facial expressions to enhance their movements. The whole

dance made me feel excited and in such a way that I wanted to get up and dance. Their multiple

pirouettes and acrobatic dance movements were absolutely amazing, and the techniques displayed by
the dancers were great. Yet, nothing was more important than the music as it set the tone for

dancing.

The music used throughout Newsies consisted of a wide variety of musical genres. Although the

songs were mainly percussive and rhythmic, they also contained some melodic elements. Often, the

music made me feel really upbeat and energetic, but I also felt calm and relaxed when hearing and

watching the melodic songs/scenes. All the music flowed with the movement. For instance, you

could predict that when the upbeat and rhythmic music was playing, the dancers would dance in a

strong and fast paced style. I liked how the musical rhythm and beat really matched the dancers

movements, but I disliked how the musical did not incorporate a lot of dance scenes with melodic

songs. The performers simply sang during melodic songs, and only danced when upbeat percussive

or rhythmic music played. Music was definitely the most important component in the performance,

but lighting additionally made the musical unpredictable and surprising.

The lighting was effective throughout the musical as it provided focus and also added the

element of surprise during particular scenes. It made it so that the audience did not know what was

going to happen, and could not predict where the spotlights were going to be centered. There were

not really any different variations of colors used throughout the performance. Mainly just spotlights

or lights would light up the whole stage, without the use of colored lighting. They did use special

lighting techniques such as electronic and computerized background as well as projectors to make

things appear on screens, which made the audience become intrigued with the dance through the

background setting. They used many lights to light up the whole stage so the audience could focus

on not one, but a group of dancers and the entire stage. The special lighting techniques did in fact

affect the mood of the dances. In particular, the lighting transitioned from bright lighting which
evoked a sense of hope, to dark lighting which produced a sense of gloom. The lighting helped with

the mood of the performance, but the costuming really made the musical come to life.

The costuming was conservative as it took place in 1899 and showed how the newsboys were

dirty and poor. The costuming contained dirty brown boots, knee length shorts, shirts, and hats. The

costuming really made the musical become a reality because in 1899 newsboys were poor and dirty

so it really fit with the time and the roles of the dancers. The costuming was really great with

matching the time, but in my opinion, it was minimalistic because they were costumes that you could

find or buy anywhere. Costuming definitely contributed to making the overall performance a

success.

To conclude, the entire performance was extremely enjoyable, but there was one scene that really

stood out to me, and it was when the newsboys shuffled on the newspapers with their feet. This was

my favorite scene because it showed how the characters were really brought to life and used the

main product that they were protesting about, newspapers! In the performance I loved the variety of

dance styles and how the dancers really made each style flow as well as connect throughout the

performance. I did not like that there were not a lot of female roles in the musical. Yes, I realize that

the show was centered around newsboys, but there was only one main female character. I would

definitely add more female characters to the musical as well as add more melodic dance songs

eliciting a least a little sense of romance. I would delete some scenes where the performance mainly

revolved around singing. I loved these scenes, but I wanted to see at least some dancing in each

scene as it produces an additional sense of emotion. I would additionally change having only

spotlights, and would add the use of flashy strobe lights to make the dancing really interesting. All in

all, I truly loved the performance and I hope to see it again in the future!