NEWSIES REVIEW

Narrator 1: In 1899, the streets of New York City echoed with the voices of newsies, peddling the newspapers of Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst and other giants of the newspaper world. On every street corner you saw em, carrying the banner, bringing you the news for a penny a pape. Poor orphans and runaways, the newsies were a ragged army, without a leader, until one day when all that changed.

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Lou: The name of the game is volume, Bobby. You only took 20 papes. Why? Bobby: Bad Headline. Limpy: Thats the first thing you gotta learn. Headlines dont sell papes, Newsies sell papes. You know, were what holds this town together. Without newsies, nobody knows nothing. Stinky: Baby born with 3 heads! Birdie: Extra! Extra! Trolley strike drags on! Charlie: Extra! Extra! Ellis Island in flames! Marlee: Wait, wheres that story? Charlie: Thank you sir. Page 9. Thousands flee in panic. Thank you. Much obliged to you ladies. Marlee: trash fire next to immigration building terrifies seagulss? Charlie: Terrified flight of inferno!! Thousands of lives at stake! Extra! Extra! Thank you sir. Extra! Extra! ... ok, show me again. Sniffles: Buy me last pape, mista? *coughs* Charlie: Its heartbreaking Kid. Go get em. Marlee: My father taught us not to lie. Charlie: Well, mine told me not to starve, so we both got an education. Marlee: Youre just making up things. All these headlines. Charlie: I dont do nothing the guys who write it dont do. Anyway, its not lying, its just improving the truth a little.

Narrator 2: As we struggled on the streets, Pulitzer relaxed and came up with a plan to make our lives even more miserable. Narrator 3: He hoisted up the price of the papes distributed to us! Narrator 1: Yeah, but he didnt raise the customer purchasing price. Narrator 3: We gottsta live bad enough already without him an his makin us suffer so his pape can profit. Boots: They jacked up the price! You hear that soda? Ten cents a hundred! You know, its bad enough that we gotta eat what we dont sell, now they jacked up the price! Can you believe that!? Soda: Thisll bust me, Im barely making a living right now. Muffin: Ill be back to sleeping on the streets. Sam: It dont make no sense. I mean, all the money Pulitzers making, why would he gouge us? Soda: because hes cheap, thats why! Mousy: Pipe down, its just a gag. Bobby: They cant do this to me Racetracks. Racetracks: They can do whatever they want. Its their stinkin paper. Jo: It aint fair. We got no rights at all. Muffin: Come on, its a rigged deck. They got all the marbles. Mousy: cookie, we got no choice, so why dont we get our lousy papes while they still got some, huh? Cookie: No! Nobodys going anywhere. They cant get away with this! Birdie: Give him some room, give him some room. Let him think. Racetracks: Cookie, you done thinkin yet? Cookie: Well, listen. One things for sure, if we dont sell papes, then nobody sells papes. Nobody comes through those gates until they put the price back to where it was. Jo: You mean like a strike? Cookie: Yeah, like a strike! Birdie: Are you out of your mind? Stinky: Its a good idea!

Jo: Jack, I was only joking. We cant go on strike, we dont have a union. Cookie: But, if we go on strike, then we are a union, right? Muffin: No, were just a bunch of angry kids with no money. Maybe if we got every newsie in New York, but... Racetracks: Yeah, well we organize. Missy, you take up for collection. We get all the newsies of New York together. Stinky: Cookie, this isnt a joke. You saw what happened to those trolley workers. Missy: Yeah, well thats another good idea. Any newsie dont join us, then we bust their heads like the trolley workers. Jo: Stop and think about this. You cant just rush everybody into this. Cookie: Alright. Let me think about it. Listen. Jos right. Pulitzer and Hearst and all them other rich fellas, I mean, they own this city, so do they really think a bunch of street kids like us can make any difference? The choice is yours. Are we just gonna take what they give us, or are we gonna strike? Muffin: Strike! Lou: Keep talking, tell us what to do! Bobby: Yeah, you tell us what to do Jo. Jo: Pulitzer and Hearst have to respect our rights. Cookie: HEY, LISTEN! Pulitzer and Hearst have to respect the rights of the working boys of New York! Well, that worked pretty good, so what else? Jo: Tell them they cant treat us like we dont exist. NEWSIES: Pulitzer and Hearst, they think were nothing. Are we nothing? No! Jo: If we stick together like the trolley workers then they cant break us up. NEWSIES: Pulitzer and Hearst, they think they got us. Do they got us? NO! Jo: Were a union now, the Newsboys Union. We have to start acting like a union. NEWSIES: Even though we aint got hats or badges, were a union just by saying so, and the world will know.

THE WORLD WILL KNOW

Bobby: Whats to stop somebody else from selling our papes?

Stinky: Well, well talk with them! Birdie: Some of them dont hear so good. Charlie: well then well soak em! Marlee: NO! We cant beat up kids in the streets. Itll give us a bad name. Sniffles: Cant get any worse Charlie: We gotta get the word out to all the newsies of New York. I need some of those... Whatdja call em? Mousy: Ambassadors? Charlie: Yeah, right. Okay, you guys, you gotta be am-baassadors and go tell the others that were on strike. Soda: Say, Ill take Harlem. Limpy: Yeah, I got Midtown. Muffin: I got the Battery. Bobby: Hey, well take the Bronx. Bobby: Alright. Marlee, Birdie and Mousy, you take Queens. Boots, Soda and Stinky, you go with em. So what about Brooklyn? Come on, spot Conlons territory. Whatsa matta? You scared of Brooklyn? Racetracks: Hey, we aint scared of Brooklyn. Its Spot Conlon that makes us a little nervous. Cookie: Well, he dont make me nervous, So you and me Racetracks, well go to Brooklyn. And Jo here can keep us company. Racetracks: Sure, just as soon as you deliver our demands to Pulitzer. NEWSIES: Strike! Strike! Strike! Denton: Hold up, Whats going on here? What demands? Mush: The Newsboys demands. Were on strike. Mousy: Who are you? Denton: Im with the New York Sun. Bryan Denton. You really think old man Pulitzers going to listen to your demands? Sam: He has to.

SEIZE THE DAY

Soda: Anybody hear that? NEWSIES: NO! Marlee: So what are we gonna do about it? NEWSIES: Soak em! Narrator 2: The great Pulitzer wasnt about to change so quickly. Narrator 1: But we had managed to land ourselves on the front page of the pape our new fan Denton writes for. Narrator 3: And wes werent about to give up without a fight. Bobby: What you got there? Stinky: Wheres me picture? Wheres me picture? Mousy: Whats that? That all about us? Sam: Look at that. You look like a gentleman. Racetracks: Will you get your fingers off me face? Marlee: Where does it say me name? Wheres me name? Lou: Will you quit thinking about yourself? Kootie: You got us on the front page! Denton: You got yourselves on the front page. I just got to make sure you stay there. Marlee: So what. You get your picture in the papes, so whats that get you, huh? Jo: What are you talkin about? Sam: Can it, boy. You been in a bad mood all day! Marlee: Im not in a bad mood! Charlie: Glum and Dumb. Whats the matta with you? You get your picture in the papes, youre famous. Youre famous, you get anything you want. Thats whats so great about New York!

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Missy: So, lets have some ideas.

Lou: Well, we gotta show people where we stand. Missy: Yeah, so we gotta stay in the papes. Denton: My papers the only one printin any strike news so far. Mousy: So, we should do something thats so big the other papersll feel stupid if they try to ignore us. Like a rally. A newsie rally with all the kids from all over New York. Itll be the biggest, loudest, noisiest blow-out this towns ever seen!

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Narrator 2: From Brooklyn to the Bronx, newsies from all over New York joined our army. Narrator 1: Our voices screamed through the streets and Pullitzer was forced to listen. Narrator 3: We didnt become no dukes or duchesses. WE didnt make more money than we needed to just get by. But we gots our voices heard and the pape price lowered back to regular. Narrator 2: The strike brought awareness to issues that needed to be addressed. We still dont have no clean clothes, much food and some of us still dont have a place to sleep either. But we have eachother; The Newsies Union.

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