#the world will know newsies

[whoops-im-obsessed]

On: Crutchie, the World Will Know, and What it Says About His Role.

So uksies, west endsies, whatever you wanna call it has got me fully entrapped and I wanna talk about some of the staging that I noticed that makes me Feral.

Uksies has such and interesting set, its performed almost in the round with the scaffolding only opening up, not actually moving, to create set pieces. As such, the choreography has changed. The choreo is honestly on another level, it has to be seen to be believed and I'm still not sure how these boys are alive.

I could go on about the choreo for years but that's not what we're here to talk about.

Jack and Crutchie have a slightly different dynamic in uksies. They're still very much brothers but they have a much more equal relationship. This is a great post about them.

Crutchie isn't as,, looked after in this production, he is an equal, and in many ways a co-leader both of the strike and of the manhattan newsies in general and 'the world will know' (twwk) shows this so well.

In previous versions, Crutchie has solo lines in twwk but becomes a member of the ensemble when Jack Davey and Les see Pulitzer. In uksies, however, Crutchie debates their strategy with them and they walk together up to the world building through the avenue of newsies. Crutchie then stops as the others go in and turns his back to the door and stands guard, looking over the other newsies as they wait, seeming to reassure them. When the trio are kicked out, he falls to the side and is pushed back up by another newsie, he then resumes his place with Jack and the others.

Ok lets unpack that.

In my mind, this establishes Crutchie not only as a leader but as a supportive figure for the rest of the newsies. Where Jack is the figurehead, speech-maker, the face of the strike and the union, Crutchie is the worker, the eyes on the ground, the deputy who is leader in all but name.

He stands guard protecting not only those inside, but keeping careful watch over the other newsies. During seize the day, he whistles loudly to signal the arrival of the delanceys and the police, he watches, takes part in the fight and protects. I don't know about anyone else but it is extremely easy for me to believe that out of him, Jack, and Davey, Crutchie is physically the strongest.

It's so interesting to me that the character who has previously been depicted as someone who needed looking after, the helpless figure that gets dragged away, is now such a strong character while the essence of who he is is not lost. Crutchie is pushed up when he falls by another newsie to rejoin the others. How perfectly that moment recognises that yes Crutchie needs support sometimes, he is still disabled, but he isn't carried, he isn't pushed aside or coddled, he is helped up and goes on his way to lead the strike with Jack.

So yeah. Don't know if these ramblings make any sense to anyone else but thats how I read into it.

Tl;dr: i love matthew duckett

[strawberrybotanist]

hey, do you all remember that time disney made an entire musical about workers unionizing because of unfair labor practices and striking against the evil rich company owners and it being a massive victory when the workers actually won? yeah, disney sure doesn’t.

[baura-bear]

just here to say i love denton??? i feel like we don't appreciate him enough idk i just think he's a cool fella and i'm really really glad the movie didn't give him a romantic interest just to give him a romantic interest. like they easily couldn't thrown medda at him just for the hell of it but they didn't. is this me saying he's gay? yes it is. denton is gay.

and you know those old black and white portraits of couples where they're actually realistic and not just what textbooks told us and they're queer and they're interracial and they're happy. i think that one day probably a few years down the line when the boys are a bit older and all have beaus of their own denton takes some portraits because he likes telling stories about real people and making sure their stories survive and out there somewhere are a bunch of pics of the newsies all sheepishly (it's the newsies who am i kidding none of them are sheepish) posing with their loved ones and obviously there's one of jack and davey anyway i'm rambling bye

[sarahjacobs]

javid is so good because when they meet, they have some strongly held beliefs about themselves and the world around them. they need each other (despite claiming not to) because they refuse to let the other stagnate, fleshing out and completing each other's character arcs. jack spends most of the movie trying to run away from himself and his loneliness and towards santa fe, david sees right through his lies and calls him out on it; david loosens up and starts to wholeheartedly believe that political change is worth pursuing because of jack's influence. deeply romantic to me that their relationship is one that demands change, from the world around them, but also themselves

[felicitykings]

NEWSIES (1992) dir. kenny ortega

[meiloorunsmoothie]

me: i should probably listen to something calm to try and lower my heart rate

also me: i'm going to loop "the world will know"

[chimeofthecomet]

so this poll has most certainly been done already but uhh

[troythecatfish]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Camila 🍉🍉🍉 (@comradecami)

[saveugoodmadam]

The younger newsies are scared of the DeLanceys because, well, they're scary. They're mean, spiteful, they tease and threaten and the older ones tell them to keep clear of the brothers.

The older newsies are scared because they know that they could just as easily have ended up back there, carted out from the Refuge to end up shoving papers roughly into kid's chests and running a finger idly over their brass knuckles at the soonest sign of trouble. Any kid with a younger sibling shivers every time they see Oscar move to protect Morris, every kid with an awful dad hates that they flinch at any mention of a father too.

The DeLanceys are people it is easy to become. That's scarier than threats and punches.

[loving-jack-kelly]

au where jack and davey are both acclaimed professionals in separate fields to the point where they're like. niche celebrities for others in their field but not famous at all in the general population. people who know who davey is are not likely to know jack and people who know jack are not likely to know davey. they get recognized on the street by a different couple they don't know and pass by said couple arguing over which one of them is actually famous.

[fanclubgraphics]

newsies live blinkies 🗞️ requests open

[music-in-my-veins14]

When the circulation bell starts ringin’ Will we hear it?

[buttonsfleas]

Newsies cast are literally a mood *part 3*

[livesincerely]

One of the last things that gets packed⁠—right up there with the wifi router, the stuff for the bathroom, and Jack’s good pillow⁠—is the calendar. Davey carefully peels it from it’s place of honor on the front of the fridge, almost the whole of April carefully x-ed out. 

“The 29th is on Friday,” he notes as he tucks it carefully away, smiling softly. “We should try and do something.”

“Dave, we are up to our ears in fuckin’ boxes,” Jack complains from his spot on the floor, giving an earnest attempt at becoming one with the carpet. “We ain’t gonna get our deposit back if we ain’t outta here before the first.”

“You were out of town on a contract last year and the year before that we both had the flu,” Davey complains. “It’d be nice if we could actually do something to celebrate.”

It’s at this point that Jack realizes he has no idea what the fuck Davey’s talking about.

“Dave,” he says. “What the fuck are you talkin’ about?”

“The 29th,” Davey says, like that alone is enough of an explanation.

“What’s so special about the 29th?” Jack asks.

Davey frowns⁠. And not just his Jack, you dumbass frown, but the full-blown, pinched-mouth, brow-furrowed, Jack, this isn’t funny, stop it frown that makes makes Jack’s heart want to shrivel up and die whenever it’s pointed his way.

So, Jack pivots. Hard.

“I’m kiddin’,” he quickly assures him, pushing himself up on his elbows as his mind races for some kind of solution. “‘Course we can do somethin’. Maybe dinner at that Italian place we saw on the corner? It looked like a nice joint.”

Davey’s expression clears. 

“God, I would kill for some tiramasu,” he says wistfully. 

“Hopefully, it won’t come to that,” Jack laughs, relieved. “I’ll call in the morning, see if they take reservations.”

“Perfect,” Davey says, with a beaming smile that makes Jack’s heart lurch for entirely different reasons. “It’s a date.”

“Yeah,” Jack says weakly. “It’s a date.”

[spot-conlons-pimp-cane]

How is it that I have just now realize the world will know is referring to the newspaper named the world, that they work for, and are striking against, not the actual world?

[make-friends-with-the-rats]