PHOTO/DEEN VAN MEER

Aisha de Haas plays vaudeville performer Medda Larkin in "Newsies" Aug. 9-14 at Belk Theater.

“Newsies” is a history lesson taught through song and dance.

The Tony-award winning musical, which heads to Belk Theater August 9-14, recalls the newsboys’ strike of 1899 in New York City.  

“It’s a true story, and of course there’s a dramatic license for making it theater-worthy and audience-worthy and entertaining as well as informative, but it’s such a high energy show,” said Aisha de Haas, who portrays Medda Larkin. “There is so much exuberance by the young men who are playing these newsies that people get so caught up in it, and forget that they are learning a history lesson.”

Haas’ character is a vaudeville performer.

“The role itself is so fantastic,” she said. “In the movie [a 1992 Disney film the musical is based on] was played by Ann-Margret, and there is a little bit of a difference in that, first of all, the name is a little different. In the movie, it is Medda Larkson and in the stage production it is Medda Larkin.”

Larkin’s character alludes to a historical figure.

“For the stage, [playwright] Harvey Fierstein based the character on a real vaudevillian from the late 1800s named Aida Overton, who was on the black vaudeville circuit, with a little bit of Mae West thrown in,” Haas said. “I think that is a perfect description of who Medda Larkin is.”

Following the story of protagonist Jack Kelly, portrayed by Joey Barreiro, the newsies are starving, homeless and at the bottom of the barrel in the upward fight for labor equality. Larkin’s experience offers a sense of perspective to their plight.

“She is a self-made woman,” Haas said. “She owns a burlesque house, just like in the movie, but she really has a soft spot for Jack, and for the young newsies, who are also trying to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, because she has done it. She wants to kind of point Jack in the right direction. She is a bit of a mother figure for him as well. The young boys took over the city really, and shut the city down to fight for a living wage. If you persevere and you fight, you can win.”
For more information: www.blumenthalarts.org/events/detail/newsies-1

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