#tuacahn

Upside: there's definitely some great casting choices here, and overall it sounds pretty good. I'm also glad we have a recording of the show, while not a proshot in the big budget sense, it's still a good one angle recording.

The picture I've been blabbering about

Ah yes my long awaited thoughts on the infamous Tuacahn production,,

This is super long because I’m literally watching and typing up these as the video is playing so it is very sequential to how the musical flows anyways hence the cut and I really don’t want to look for photos so sorry,,, this list is an absolute mess but it is very genuine,,,

So @neverfearbrooklynshere, @hayleyharmony16, and I went to Tuacahn’s production of Newsies in Ivins, Utah last night. I’ve seen people post about some other regional productions of Newsies but I haven’t seen anything about this one, so here are some things about the show that I noticed from last night (Warning: this is going to be super long but there was so much that I wanted to comment about so sorry):

·      They had the newsies run out in the audience before the show started and sold copies of newspapers out to people for loose change (we tried very hard to get one but were unfortunately unsuccessful). In “Once and For All” the newsies go into the audience as well and sing while hoisting up their papers and it was very powerful.

·      The Jack in this production liked to climb up and down the poles of the set like a spider monkey and I wish that I could even come close to that kind of upper body strength). Jack was dressed more like the Christian Bale Jack, complete with a bandanna tied around his neck, and he didn’t wear a newsie cap (which meant no dramatic removal of the cap during Santa Fe L). However, one thing that I did like a lot was that after meeting Jack, Les pickpockets a handkerchief from someone at the theatre and ties it around his neck to emulate his newsie hero. Spot Conlon was given an eye patch for some reason (Pirate!Spot, anyone?).  Wiesel had a ponytail in this show and it was almost life changing. Katherine and Pulitzer both wore red in this show as a subtle nod to the fact that their characters were related. Jack actually gets smacked by a bowery beauty (named Pearl) in this show and I’m not sure how I feel about that but I guess it does play into the whole “Girls are nice once or twice/ ‘Til I find someone new” line.

·      They introduced a lot of new props to the show, including actual freaking torches and pails in which they burned newspapers in “The World Will Know.” They also sprayed newsies with hoses during the fight scene after “Seize the Day” (which was a very modern touch, considering the water cannons that are sometimes used on strikers today). And, most impressively, they had a cop riding around on a horse! A real horse!

·      Speaking of “Seize the Day,” Jack intimidates some of the scabs into joining the strike by dancing at them, and I couldn’t help but laugh because it was just like Guardians of the Galaxy where Starlord challenges Ronan to a dance-off for dominance. Also, they had girl newsies come on stage and Les, after dancing at them, convinces them to join the strike and walks away with his arms around two of them (what a player).  There was a cool move where they threw paper stacks with their feet and they had a lot of moving set parts and they walked through the moving gate for “The World” to indicate movement. In the fight scene afterward, Pulitzer watches the whole thing unfold sternly from his office, which nearly gave me chills because he was literally watching all these children get beat up?!?! Jack is being beat up by Snyder and Crutchie goes “Don’t touch him!” and tries to get Snyder off of Jack but he ends up getting dragged off to the Refuge for his bravery and I cried.

·      “Letter from the Refuge” featured Jack onstage as well as Crutchie, and Crutchie walked over to Jack, handed the letter to him, and read the letter out loud over his shoulder while Jack reacted to what he read and Dear God it was so sad. (The actor playing Crutchie didn’t limp during this scene, which I thought was an accident on his part, but my sister said that maybe this was due to the fact that it was Jack imagining what Crutchie was doing in his head so the rules don’t apply to that situation.)

·      The idea of the west and Santa Fe was a huge theme in this production, because Tuacahn is literally in an incredible red rock canyon. During the climax of Santa Fe, they lit up the mountains behind Jack so that it glowed red in the dark. “Something to Believe In” used this to its advantage as well, as they projected a circle of light onto the red rock so that it looked like the moon. This was a great lighting choice because it matches the “Moon so big and yellow” line from “Santa Fe,” which shows that Santa Fe for Jack is transformed from just an imaginary place of tranquility in his mind to a real-life place when he finds belonging with Katherine and the newsies (Awwww).

·      There were no actual tap shoes in “King of New York” but they did tap-like dance moves. Instead of using spoons during the dance break they pounded out rhythms with cups and plates. Jacobi joins in and they have crowns made of metal and paper that they wore and put on Jacobi’s head along with a cape. One guy did this cool trick where he threw up a plate and made it land in a completely vertical position on another plate. They also gave Davey his own little dance solo and he wore a cooking pot on his head and it was precious.

·      In “Brooklyn’s Here,” the kid from the Bronx pops up from the top of the  giant Brooklyn Bridge model in the background to say “So’s the Bronx!” and I was torn between two thoughts: “How in the heck did he get up there?” and “I aspire to be this extra.” There was a lot of aggressive clapping in this show, which is a tactic that I should definitely use to scare people away on the street, right?

·      Jack steals a pencil from Pulitzer’s office and Pulitzer takes it out of his pocket during the reprise of “The Bottom Line.” Teddy Roosevelt joins in on the thievery later, as he stole a pencil from Pulitzer before leaving his office (what a boss). After the line “He doesn’t do happiness, does he?” Jack verbally said no and everyone onstage just shook their heads in agreement.

·      During the kiss just before the finale, Davey frantically covers Les’ eyes and Les says “That’s disgusting” in a lovely homage to his brother. They shot off fireworks in the last bit of the finale, which I wasn’t expecting and was blown away by.