Last April, the cork board in front of the theatre classroom appeared, displaying the titles of 20 different musicals that could potentially be done the following school year, with names such as “The Little Mermaid” and “Chicago” leaving students guessing. Over the course of two weeks, some were eliminated each day until there was only one left standing; “Newsies.”
“Newsies,” originally a movie produced by Disney, but later a Broadway production in 2012, has made a big name for itself. With just over 1,000 performances on Broadway and a lot of attention across social media, theatre will be adding another five shows to Newsie’s list. When deciding on which production the department will perform, Head Theatre Director Cheryl Painter begins by assessing her students.
“First we take a look at the students that we have in the program and who is really successful, who is growing, what are their strengths, what strengths do we want to grow in the potential program and does it have room for the program to grow overall,” Painter said. “And if that play checks all of the boxes then it ends up on the list, and then it gets us really good and excited for the next year. That’s how we select them.”
Everything is set in stone months in advance; paperwork is signed and approved, roles are considered and rehearsals are planned before anything can begin. However, “Newsies” being a Disney production, is rather hard to get the rights to, based on Painter’s experience in getting them on board for the show. Strict rules they can’t deviate from, such as character’s shoe or hair color, must be approved by publishing companies before being done. Other details like estimated amount of tickets, school size, dates and more are looked over and approved by lawyers.
“Because it’s Disney, it’s even more complicated – it was a 27 page contract to make sure that we could do all the things they asked us to do for the rights for that show,” Painter said. “We are not allowed to make changes without written express proof from the publishing company, and largely that answer is no. So we are to do shows as they were intended- playwright intended, publishing company intended.”
Most musicals go through three publishing companies; Concord Theatricals, Musical Theatre International and Theatrical Rights World Wide. Publishing companies can never fully guarantee the rights to a show- some deny the licensing while others are simply hard to get a hold of, and others need to clarify that a performance is not already being made by another company or on a national tour in a nearby city. Painter also discusses possible shows and conflicts with Principal Vincent Hawkins to ensure that the admin has approved every production.
“Whenever I’m looking at a show I look at potential problems that we may have, then I work out solutions so that we don’t have those problems,” Painter said. “We have a very supportive connection with our LISD fine arts administration as well, so I want everybody happy and on board at all times.”
Despite the amount of twists and turns that go on behind the scenes, the theatre department is looking forward to their debut performance starting Jan. 22.
“It was definitely exciting when we started announcing that this is a potential show we were doing, everybody was very excited,” Painter said. “[Newsies has] definitely checked all the boxes for the potential for the students we had, it gave us the opportunity to grow as a program, grow in strength, skills and size.”