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racetrackmybeloved · 3 months

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Did Tommy Boy, Sniper and Kid Blink Scab?

To clarify, the question is whether the characters themselves scabbed, or whether the actors played multiple characters, one being their regular newsie character (Tommy Boy, Sniper, Kid Blink), and the other being an unnamed ‘scab’ character.

Most of the posts I’ve seen on here about these characters assume that the characters themselves scabbed, but I disagree:

(Note: this is all based on the 2017 proshot, I know there may be some differences with the original Broadway production and the UK production, but I have not seen those so cannot form an opinion on them.)

David says "Who are they?" when the scabs show up.

All three of them were at the circulation gate on the first day.

Tommy Boy and Sniper were at the circulation gate the next day. Tommy Boy questions Jack ("You got an idea?").

Tommy Boy was at Jacobi's. He was mentioned by name, and given an assignment by Jack ("Tommy Boy, take the east side").

To be fair on him, David did meet a lot of people on those days, and was under a lot of stress. However, even if he didn't know them by name, he should at the very least recognise Tommy Boy well enough to not ask who he was.

2. Finch says "They think they can just waltz in here and take our jobs?"

The implication of "take our jobs" is that the scabs are aiming to replace the existing newsies, and were not newsies themselves at that point.

3. Jack does not appeal to them as individuals.

When Jack is giving his speech to convince the three scabs to throw down their papers, at no point does he name them, or say anything personal. We know for a fact that he knows Tommy Boy well enough to trust him with an assignment. Why did he never appeal to him as a friend? Counter-argument: Jack is a dumbass.

4. IMDB and end credits.

Each of the actors' IMDB pages list them as playing two characters, one being their named newsie, and the other being 'scab'. This is done in the same way as Jack Sippel's IMDB, which lists him as playing both Darcy ("My father owns The Trib") and Kenny (his newsie character). This indicates that Tommy Boy, Sniper and Kid Blink did not scab, and their actors just swap between characters.

However, the official credits at the end of the film on Disney+ tell a different story. Michael Dameski is credited for playing both Tommy Boy and 'Scab', while Andy Richardson and Daniel Switzer are only credited for their respective named newsie characters.

From this, I would argue that it is uncontentious that Tommy Boy and 'Scab' are intended to be separate characters. I don't know where IMDB gets their information on character names, and whether it is common for them to be incorrect.

I will mention that there are other instances of characters not being mentioned in the credits. For example, Andrew Wilson plays three characters: a man in the audience at Medda's theatre, one of Wiesel's goons, and a Brooklyn newsie. He is credited as playing 'Willie' and 'Bart'. ‘Bart’ is presumably Andrew Wilson’s Brooklyn newsie character, as that is his last appearance, but which character is Willie? (It is also pretty clear that these are three separate characters, as theatre Andrew has a moustache, and I highly doubt a Brooklyn newsie would be working with Wiesel to beat up Manhattan newsies). None of these characters have any lines so it does not matter, but I just wanted to bring up that the credits may gloss over non-speaking characters. As such, it is possible that Andy Richardson and Daniel Switzer should have been credited as ‘Scab’ as well as their named characters.

Side note: the Newsies Wiki also says that Tommy Boy was a scab, but I do not consider this to be a reliable source.

In my opinion, it is quite clear that at the very least, Tommy Boy did not scab. Whether Kid Blink and Sniper scabbed is up to interpretation, but I believe that all of them were playing alternative 'scab' characters.

Note: Daniel Switzer (Sniper) speaks one line when he is not playing a scab ("So's the Bronx!" - Brooklyn's Here), while Andy Richardson (Kid Blink) does not have any independent lines outside of when he plays a scab. However, even Daniel Switzer's line is not done as Sniper - this is presumably another instance of an actor playing a different character, in this case being a Bronx newsie.

I do question the director's choice of having Michael Dameski play both a scab and a newsie who is involved in the strike.

Michael Dameski has 2 lines as Tommy Boy:

"It's gettin' bad out there" - Carrying the Banner

"You got an idea?"

He can also be heard (at least) 2 more times, but I would consider those instances to be background shouts rather than scripted lines. In addition, these lines are said in the minutes after he throws down his papers, so it is unclear whether he is saying them as Tommy Boy or as 'Scab'.

"That's right!" - Seize the Day

"Hey!" - Seize the Day

As mentioned earlier, his character is also directly named, and given an assignment by Jack. If the scabs were intended to be anonymous unnamed characters who were not previously newsies, it makes sense that Andy Richardson (Kid Blink) and Daniel Switzer (Sniper) were selected. I assume that their choices were limited to ensemble actors who would be in the Seize the Day number, so Andrew Wilson, JP Ferreri and Stephen Hernandez (Brooklyn newsies) were not options. Julian De Guzman (Smalls), David Guzman (Ike), and Jacob Guzman (Mike) do not have any speaking lines in the musical, nor are they mentioned by name. To avoid raising additional issues of one twin scabbing while the other did not (which would be a GREAT plot line in my opinion, but would not be realistic due to time constraints and as it would have detracted focus), the logical choice for an actor to play a scab alongside their newsie character would have been Julian De Guzman (Smalls).

Tommy Boy however, is a character that we recognise. We know he is extremely literal (his confusion when Jack says "would you keep your shirt on?"), and is likely more of a realist than an optimist ("it's gettin' bad out there" in Carrying the Banner). He, along with Specs and Finch are newsies that Jack specifically singled out to bring the news of the strike to the other boroughs. We can infer that he is someone who Jack trusts, is older, and has likely been a newsie for a long time. Him being selected to go the extra mile (literally) to tell other newsies about the strike would make it heartbreaking if they had chosen the narrative of the scabs being existing newsies. It brings up questions that make the plot more complex: what happened in that 24 hour period that caused him to lose faith? What made him betray his friends? However, I don't think that was what they were going for, as the credits explicitly make a distinction between Tommy Boy and the scab.

If we ignore literally everything I have said up until this point, and assume that the intended plot line was that three existing newsies had scabbed, then it was not executed very well. It would have been much more effective if they had selected newsies who we had more prior connection to, such as Romeo, Finch, or Albert. We have zero emotional attachment to Sniper and Kid Blink, as we do not know their names, and do not hear them speak. Even though Tommy Boy is an established character, he still barely speaks, and we have little to no emotional connection with him. The personality traits mentioned earlier would not even be picked up on by the casual watcher. (If he is anyone's favourite prior to that moment, it is 100% due to Michael Dameski's dancing, and not the character itself).

Further, if the characters themselves scabbed, we should have seen some kind of development that made sense. Focusing in on Tommy Boy, with the narrative of him being a scab, he says "I'm with ya!", and then joins in with the other newsies to intimidate the other two scabs into joining them. (He also yells "That's right!" in the background). Where is the reaction from the other newsies? Jojo puts an arm around him, but I do not read much into this, as he also has his arm around Henry. Give me emotion, give me 'my friend/probably housemate just stabbed me in the back, and then realised the error of his ways', give me SOMETHING. He is one of the three newsies that Jack trusted enough to give an assignment to, and one of two newsies who agreed - he is clearly an important part of this family.

Kid Blink and Sniper get even less reaction from the other newsies. The newsies are visibly happy when they throw down their papers, but I do not see their reactions as distinct from how they would have reacted if they had been random unnamed scabs. If the intended narrative was that the characters themselves had betrayed their friends, we should have seen a more personal, emotionally charged reaction. However, we simply do not know enough about these characters to draw a conclusion.

Overall, I think it is uncontentious that Tommy Boy did not scab, due to a combination of factors including the official credits, David's apparent terrible memory, and my (possibly misplaced) faith that if his character had scabbed, it would have been handled better. Whether Sniper and Kid Blink scabbed is more difficult to say, due to conflicting credits, and a lack of information about the characters themselves. In my opinion, it makes more sense to say that all three of the actors played two characters: Tommy Boy, Sniper and Kid Blink, and three unnamed scabs.

PS:

Michael Dameski (Tommy Boy)'s scab going from scabbing with Daniel Switzer (Sniper)'s scab to glaring at him and staring him down in the space of thirty seconds is objectively hilarious, whether you think he was still the 'scab' character at that point, or if he had turned into Tommy Boy in that time frame. Top tier, truly elite.

Would love to hear your opinions!

#strap in y’all this is a long one #this took me SO LONG please appreciate the effort #i really need a life #overanalysing newsies is my jam #could the point of this essay have been reached in about 5 sentences? probably #but where’s the fun in that #also if this was all obvious to everyone then well. sorry #newsies #newsies fandom #livesies #tommy boy #tommy boy newsies #kid blink #sniper newsies #newsies broadway #newsies musical #newsies live #newsies analysis

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