rabarber

First off, you have to consider the context of where Santa Fe is in the musical versus the movie.

In the movie, Jack sings Santa Fe after meeting the Jacobses for the first time. His first couple of lines are ‘So that’s what they call a family / mother, daughter, father, son.’

In the musical, Jack sings Santa Fe after the strike goes wrong and Crutchie gets arrested. His first couple of lines are ‘Folks, we’ve finally got a headline / Newsies crushed as bulls attack.’

These differences in time and lyrics immediately show the different interpretations each Jack has. Movie Jack is thinking about family. Musical Jack is thinking about how badly he’s messed up.

‘So you ain’t got any family / Well, who said you needed one? / Ain’t you glad nobody’s waiting up for you?’ Movie Jack sings. This reads like Jack trying to convince himself that this is true—that he really is happier without any family, and that it’s better that he has no one to miss him when he finally leaves for Santa Fe.

‘Guys are fightin’, bleedin’, fallin’ / Thanks to good ol’ Captain Jack! / But Captain Jack just wants to close his eyes and go!.’ Musical Jack sings. He blames himself for the fight gone wrong and wants to escape his feelings of failure. He’s the older brother, he should’ve protected the newsies better. He has a family, and he cares about them, but he refuses to admit that they’d miss him if he left.

Then we have the transition. 

Movie Jack is quiet and reserved, going from ‘Ain’t you glad nobody’s waiting up for you?’ to ‘When I dream on my own / I’m alone, but I ain’t lonely.’ On the other hand, Musical Jack’s transition is loud and angry. He screams out, ‘But Captain Jack just wants to close his eyes and go!’ before singing quieter ‘Let me go, far away / somewhere they won’t never find me,’ like someone is forcing him to stay behind in New York.

‘For a dreamer night’s the only time of day.’ versus ‘And tomorrow won’t remind me of today.’ Movie Jack’s Santa Fe is a hopeful dream. Musical Jack’s Santa Fe is an escape.

Both Jacks express the sentiment for being ‘on the train that’s bound for Santa Fe.’ But while Movie Jack’s thoughts are straying, Musical Jack is talking about the moon—which he later compares to the moon in Santa Fe. I have some ideas for why Movie Jack wouldn’t want to think about Santa Fe during the day. Maybe he doesn’t want it to interfere with selling, or maybe he doesn’t want the other newsies to find out, especially since it’s unclear in the movie if anyone except for Davey and Sarah knows about his dream. Movie Jack has a friend in all of the newsies, but not Crutchie as his closest friend, as the Musical implies.

One of my favorite lines in the Movie Santa Fe is ‘And I’m free like the wind / Like I’m gonna live forever.’ It gives such a feeling of whimsy and hopefulness, which is what Jack feels when he thinks about Santa Fe. In Santa Fe, he can go wherever he pleases and his life won’t be limited by selling papers. 

In the Musical, Jack says, ‘And I’m gone, and I’m done / No more runnin’, no more lyin’’ which is a much more cynical take. Like I said above, Santa Fe is less of a dream for Musical Jack and more of a necessity. He needs to get out of New York, he needs to escape the people hunting him. Musical Jack feels older than Movie Jack because of this. 

His next line has the same feeling, ‘No more fat old men denying me my pay,’ which focuses more on the life he has now that he hates, than the life Santa Fe can give him, which is what Movie Jack focuses on when he says ‘It’s a feeling time can never take away.’

Musical Jack then brings up the Santa Fe moon—‘a moon so big and yellow / it turns night right into day’—comparing it to ‘the moon’ in New York that looks ‘old and gray’ and therefore comparing life in New York to Santa Fe. Meanwhile, Movie Jack focuses on how he just ‘needs a few more dollars / and I’m outta here to stay.’ He’s actively saving up to go to Santa Fe. Musical Jack is only yearning for the chance to go.

Both Jacks sing the same lines before the chorus (give or take a few minor wording differences): 

Where’s it say you gotta live and die here?

Where does it say a guy can’t catch a break?

Why should you only take what you’re given?

Why should you spend your whole life livin’

Trapped where there ain’t no future?

Even at seventeen

Breakin’ your back for someone else’s sake

If the life don’t seem to suit ya

How’bout a change of scene

Far from the lousy headlines

And the deadlines in between

Here we get some of the motivation behind why Jack wants to leave—he’s tired of living the hard life of a newsie, trapped in New York where he’s destined to go from one back-breaking job to the next. Jack wants out of the life that’s been handed to him.

Then we get to the chorus.

Movie Jack sings ‘Santa Fe, are you there / Do you swear you won’t forget me? / If I found you, would you come and let me stay?’ He almost personifies Santa Fe like a parent or a lover, asking them to remember him and let him stay with them. Musical Jack sings ‘Santa Fe, my old friend / I can’t spend my whole life dreamin’ / Though I know that’s all I seem inclined to do’, treating Santa Fe as, like he said, a friend, and perhaps one that is telling him to stop dreaming and be realistic, projecting his internal struggles onto his dream.

Both Jacks know that they ‘ain’t gettin’ any younger,’ but where Musical Jack says that he ‘wants to start brand new,’ Movie Jack just wants to get to Santa Fe ‘before [his] dying day.’ Both want ‘space’ (Musical Jack also wants ‘fresh air’) and both dare people to ‘laugh in my face / I don’t care.’ Then they both ask Santa Fe to ‘save a place’ for them, that ‘I’ll be there’, like Santa Fe will disappear if they take too long.

And then Movie Jack laments about family again. ‘So that’s what they call a family / Ain’t you glad you ain’t that way? / Ain’t you glad you got a dream called Santa Fe.’ Once again, he’s talking like he’s trying to convince himself that Santa Fe is what he wants, more than family or even a place to belong. Even though he already has the newsies. Even though Santa Fe is just a dream.

Musical Jack, meanwhile, asks Santa Fe to ‘be real’ and ‘not some paintin’ in my head / ‘Cause I’m dead if I can’t count on you today / I got nothin’ if I ain’t got Santa Fe.’ Once again, he takes a more cynical approach to his dream, begging Santa Fe to be real, believing that he will be “dead” if he can’t have it. And, just like Movie Jack, he’s blind to the fact that he doesn’t have nothing—he has the newsies, and he has Crutchie, someone important to him who just got sent to the Refuge! (Perhaps he’s already treating Crutchie like he’s dead, which is also really sad.) The ‘painting in my head’ part also relates back to the aspect of his character that the musical swapped for liking cowboys, which is the fact that Jack is an artist.

The last note is also really important. In the Movie, Jack once again takes a softer approach, breathing out the ‘Santa Fe’ like a prayer or a plea. In the Musical, Jack holds out the ‘Santa Fe’ like he’s calling out to it, begging his dream to come true.

And that’s my analysis of the different versions of Santa Fe. Just as a note, I do prefer the movie Santa Fe to the musical one (at least lyric- and tone-wise), but both versions are really well done and fit the context of their respective media. The interpretations of Jack from Christian Bale and Jeremy Jordan are both amazing in their own ways and are equally important and valuable to the larger narrative of Newsies. I just find it interesting that a “few” lyrical changes can shift the whole feel of a song.