'Newsies' musical heading to Broadway

NEW YORK, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- "Newsies, The New American Musical" is to open in March at Broadway's Nederlander Theater, the show's producers said Tuesday.

The musical will play a 101-performance engagement. Previews are to start March 15, with opening night set for March 29. The final performance is scheduled for June 10.

The show's Broadway run will follow its critically hailed stint at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse earlier this fall.

The musical features a score by Alan Menken and Jack Feldman, and a book by Harvey Fierstein.

"In this company's 17-year history, we have never seen a show so immediately and fervently embraced this early in its life," Thomas Schumacher, producer and president of Disney Theatrical Productions, said in a statement. "It's clear that the themes of 'Newsies' -- of the younger generation taking their place, of the underclass righting injustice -- are extraordinarily timely. We could never have imagined our show would be called to Broadway in the way it has, but we could not be prouder that it's resonating so deeply."

Casting will be announced at a later date, the show's producers said.

Set in New York at the turn of the last century, "Newsies" is about Jack Kelly, a charismatic newsboy and leader of a ragged band of teenage newspaper peddlers who dreams of a better life. But when publishing titans Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise distribution prices at the newsboys' expense, Jack finds a cause to fight for and rallies newsies from across the city to strike for what's right, a synopsis said.

The 1992 film "Newsies," while a box-office dud, is regarded as a cult classic.