#newsical

imagine that Sarah meets Katherine and recognizes her own work adorning Katherine's clothes

So, I've finally done it y'all, I've sat down and watched the whole Broadway performance. And now I have thoughts, specifically on the ending.

The ending of the 1992 movie is happy, Jack comes back, they're all cheering, Roosevelt gives him some nice words and he kisses the girl. All fun and games, childhood love and stuff.

The Broadway feels different, older. Maybe it's just because the actors are actually adults, but it definitely feels more mature. Jack doesn't go to Santa Fe at all. He thinks about it then decides to stay where he is, with Katherine, the newsies, and probably for that nice job he was just offered.

Fun, they both stay in New York with their friends, but if we extended them, looked at what happened after the show ended and the curtain closed, I think they would be way more different(forgive me if I have a bad take, there is in fact nothing past the end and therefore I'm making stuff up)

I cannot see 92sies!Jack staying in New York. I don't know why, but that's who he is to me. This teenager has spent his entire life in a dirty city, working for very little pay, running from the cops, and dreaming about this life he always wanted to live. He's gonna get tired of the city again, he's gonna want to escape, and to me, the end of his life is either going to Santa Fe for good, or dying young in the streets of New York. 92sies!Jack doesn't get a happy ending where he lives with his friends because he will never be content in New York, he needs to get away, to do something more.

Bway!Jack probably can stay in New York. He has his friends, he has his job, and he has Katherine. He probably gets older and gets that job illustrating the newspapers. He's able to get a stable income and live somewhat comfortably in New York with Katherine. He has his family and he'll stay with them.

Santa Fe to 92sies!Jack is a place, it's an actual city with land he could call his own and a train that will take him there. Everything he wants, everything that will give him a good life is in that town.

Santa Fe to Bway!Jack was a dream where he could start a new life, it was never an actual place, it was an idea. At the end of the movie he has started a new life, he found his Santa Fe, and it was in the people around him.

Bway!Jack got to Santa Fe by the end of the movie, he found his home, 92sies!Jack will never be content where he is and he needs to travel and find where he belongs(which once he gets out west he'll probably realize it was NY, but I'm not giving this man a happy ending)

Which is why I think 92sies!Jack will end up in Santa Fe somehow(more likely he'll end up dead before that, but oh well, I'll make that post later) and Bway!Jack is able to stay in New York.

But oh well, I'm probably looking to deeply into it at this point

please do. enlighten me.

okay. where to even start with this. I will say, this is all just MY opinion! take it for what you will <3

I’ll also preface by saying I haven’t actually watched the newsical all the way through in over a year, so certain details might be fuzzy.

But anyway, I just think that one of the whole points of Newsies is the class divide. Jack represents all of the children failed by the industrial capitalist system, and Pulitzer represents the people behind that system. My good friend @make-friends-with-the-rats has talked about how Pulitzer actually started out as a very nuanced character, and was less of a straightforward villain than that of warden Snyder - but still. He’s Jack’s opposition, systematically.

So to me, it’s just really weird to have the “villain’s” child be Jack’s love interest. Yes, yes, Katherine doesn’t like her father either, I know. And yes, it’s an interesting plot device for sure. But I just think it sends mixed messages. No longer is Jack relegated to the lower class, he’s moved up to be on Katherine’s level, in a way (or so I feel).

Side note, but one of my favorite things about Javid is that they are both lower class. Sure, Jack’s definitely worse off, but they still come from the same world. Also true of Jarah. I think a lot of ships I encounter across fandoms come with power imbalances or class divides of some sort. So to me, it’s nice when characters are on the same level, it’s something I like.

I just think Katherine and Jack skew with the messages the story tries to tell. I think the different physical setting and actor usage of the newsical make those lines blurry already - like try to imagine Jatherine in 92sies. To me it just makes no sense. (Which of course is fine, because they are separate pieces of media that can be enjoyed apart from each other, so it doesn’t really matter in the end)

Also I want to make clear that I do understand the whole argument of Katherine wanting to leave her social status behind too. That’s not lost on me, but my point still stands.