I cried so hard watching the Newsies UK cast's Olivier performance last night and I want to talk about why!
Firstly, I just love this show so much! I can't afford to travel overseas which means I haven't gotten to see much of the UK production, sadly, so this medley was an absolute treat! Honestly, it blew me away! It brought me to happy tears to see that this show and these songs are in such great hands! BUT it goes so much deeper than that.
Two actors in this cast are disabled. As a disabled person myself, I can't tell you how validating it feels to see people like me being cast in professional theatre. Unfortunately, it's still rare. Even in a show like Newsies which features disabled characters and is based on a historic event that was led by a disabled person. It makes me feel incredibly encouraged and empowered to see them up there on that stage! (Especially given that one of them is visually impaired like me!!!) Mukeni Nel and Matthew Duckett, y'all are my heroes. 💜
And, of course, I lost it when the Brooklyn girlsies came out! Historically, women and girls also worked as newsies and were involved in the strike, and it feels SO good to finally see that represented in the story!
I can't stress this enough: REPRESENTATION 👏 IS 👏 SO 👏 IMPORTANT! 👏
(Also, I want to see this show so 👏 damn 👏 bad! 👏 😭)
WOOOOO first ask ty !! This is more mark samaras in costume art than mike art hfjfhdj but i had so much fun trying to do a more painterly likeness thingy. And i've gotta get jojo and henry in there im sensing from their tiktoks theyre a package deal lol
I made a slide show presentation with a run down of the UKsies cast for anyone trying to familiarize themself or for anyone trying to help out a friend!!! I have a slide for every member (hopefully I didn’t forget anyone lol!) but this is a great source if you’re trying to memorize names and faces! I even have a fun little game at the end! This was super fun to make!!!!