Disney's 'Newsies' comes to the Straz Center in Tampa

The Disney musical "Newsies" hit Broadway in 2012 and ran for 1,000 shows over two-and-a-half years. That's a successful run for almost any show. But compared to some other Disney musicals, it was a disappointment. "Beauty and the Beast" had run for 13 years on Broadway; "The Lion King" is still running after 18. But Joey Barreiro, who plays Jack Kelly in the current national tour of "Newsies," points out that making those comparisons isn't really fair.

"This is a different kind of show," Barreiro said in a phone interview from a tour stop in Canada. "All the other Disney musicals were based on movies that were huge hits. 'Newsies' is based on a movie that was a flop, although it has a strong cult following."

The tour comes to Tampa on Tuesday for eight shows at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts.

The story has to do with a labor strike in the last years of the 19th century. A bunch of poor kids -- newsies, they were called -- would buy Joseph Pulitzer's newspapers and sell them on the street for a profit. "Pulitzer raised the price," Barreiro said. "He raised the price by a dime. So these kids went on strike. And they won."

The film didn't get very good reviews, which is probably why it didn't do well in theaters, and only gained a following through DVD.

But the musical's been respected right from the start. Both the score and the choreography won Tony Awards, the show was nominated for Best Musical and Harvey Fierstein earned a nomination for Best Book. Reviews have especially praised the show's songs and dancing, and lot of them have made note of "Newsies" consistently high energy level.

The music comes from Alan Menken, the composer of most of the current generation of Disney film musicals and their stage counterparts, including "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aladdin." He's won eight Academy Awards for his music, but "Newsies" is the only show that earned him a Tony.

The cast is young, and this is the first national tour for a lot of the performers. That includes Barreiro, who grew up in Miami.

His mother now lives in Apollo Beach, and she'll be in the audience for one of his Tampa appearances. "And after Tampa we go to Fort Lauderdale," he said. "So all my friends that I went to school with are going to be able to come and see me. That's going to be really fun."

Details: Nov. 10-15, Morsani Hall at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa. Show times: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $35-$115 plus service charge. Information: 813-229-7827, strazcenter.org.

Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919.

Follow twitter.com/martinclear.

This story was originally published November 4, 2015 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Disney's 'Newsies' comes to the Straz Center in Tampa ."