Newsies the Musical - Opening Night - Paper Mill Playhouse

MAX EHRICH: We just had our opening night of Newsies, and it was the craziest thing, most amazing experience I've ever had in my life. JEREMY JORDAN: It was great. There's always something that goes wrong or something that flubs, but today it was just, everything fell together perfectly. It was like Disney magic. [MUSIC- "KING OF NEW YORK"] KARA LINDSAY: Disney's behind this, so it's just so huge and so exciting and so thrilling. I'm not usually nervous for opening nights. I saw my finger shaking at one point on the stage and I was like, uh-oh. JEFF CALHOUN: I'm sort of overwhelmed with the audience's reaction. They go crazy for Chris's work. ANDREW KEENAN-BOLGER: The crowd goes absolutely wild for the show. It's one of the most fulfilling experiences, as an audience member. The dancers, the whole cast, they work so hard and it was truly like a blank canvas, and it was like, can you do this? Yes. Can you do this? No, but we'll do it. ANDY RICHARDSON: During one of the first reversals there was just an entire hour devoted to like, OK, what can you guys do? And so everyone was just showing off what they can do, tumbling, flips. RYAN STEELE: I feel so lucky to be working with Chris Gattelli. He's such a dancer's choreographer. He speaks our language. It's so wonderful on stage, but he's wonderful to work with in the rehearsal room. JEFF CALHOUN: The dancers are always the underdog. Trying to make a living in this business as a singer/dancer is really hard, and this is a show that celebrates that. And I know we both came from that background. They're the heroes of the show, our singers and dancers. CHRISTOPHER GATTELLI: With this group it was a true collaboration. You come, of course, with ideas,and you're trying to tell a story, and can we tell this much story through dance, and can we forward the plot? You have these ideas, and then they lift it higher than you ever thought. BOB TZUDIKER: It's amazing to think that you did something 20 years ago, and then to see it come to life this way, tonight, is very, very exciting. MARK HOEBEE: What's been thrilling about this is, everybody who's been involved in it-- the talent level's amazing; Jeff Calhoun, Chris Gattelli, Alan Menken, Harvey Fierstein, Jack Feldman, the Disney people, Tom Schumacher. But it's that talent, combined with their passion for the material, and the story about these young kids standing up for what they believe in, what they think is right. And that passion has brought this amazing product to our stage. We couldn't be happier. We have the ability to extend. The word of mouth and the audiences have been amazing. They've really been picking up like crazy. ANDY RICHARDSON: Come see Newsies before it closes on October 16. [MUSIC- "SANTA FE"]