‘Newsies’ was Disney’s biggest live-action musical failure that recently turned into a cult classic.

The Disney movie musical about the newsboys’ strike of 1899 starred a youthful Christian Bale. He played the role of a charming strike leader called Jack Kelly in ‘Newsies.’

Directed by Kenny Ortega, the plot of the movie was concerning young newspaper sellers who are exploited beyond reason by their bosses. They set out to establish change, and are met by the merciless of big businesses. Topped off with strong New York accents, the film had original music by Alan Menken and Jack Feldman.

The 30th anniversary of the movie was on April 10, and Insider spoke with some of the key members about the musical. Then-Walt Disney Studios Chair Jeffrey Katzenberg’s thought his ‘pet project’ would revolutionize the live-action-musical genre, But it didn’t.

What is behind the recent cause for the film becoming a cult classic? Let’s find out.

Initial Struggles

Newsies originally didn’t start out as a musical. It wasn’t supposed to be a musical, until Ortega made an entrance to play with the project.

David Moscow, who played the role of Davey in the movie, said that this was the teams’ big hope that musicals were going to come back. Ortega got to work with Bale and Ortega, who had tons of potential.

“They had to calm both me and Christian down, like, ‘Look, we’re never going to make you look bad. We have so much rehearsal time,'” Moscow said. “They brought in Madonna’s voice coach for us. It was wild.”

According to Moscow, they rehearsed six days a week to prepare for the filming. Additionally, he said that he felt bad for people who had to teach him.

‘Newsies’ almost lost its lead as well before the official filming began. Bale had trouble securing the proper visa to stay in California because he was a Wales native.

This was a sign of things to come. The rocky start continued into a rock end.

Dead on Arrival (DOA)

‘Newsies’ was described to be dead on arrival.

Menken recalled getting breakfast with Katzenberg and the Disney exec, announcing that the movie was no good. There could have been a solution to save the movie, but Disney gave up.

“I remember having breakfast with Jeffrey Katzenberg at the Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles and saying, ‘What are we going to do?’ And he said, ‘Menken, I could throw $10 million up in the air right here, Doheny, and just throw it up in the air. And it would do just as much good. It’s DOA, baby, DOA.'”

Fans were bashing the movie at theatres. And to make matter worse, the opening weekend of the movie grossed $1.2 million against a $15 million budget.

It was pretty much over. Until…

The Revival

‘Newsies fell flat on its face, but the fans helped it become a Broadway hit and a Cult Classic decades later.

The movie was about to have new scripts transcribed by small theatre troupes at schools and summer camps. Moreover, they were also learning the music for free. Disney finally stepped in to create a basic script that could be licensed. This only happened when amateur productions were performed for years.

The script made it to Broadway, and it debuted in 2012. ‘Newsie’ would survive on arrival this time around.

The Broadway musical was nominated for eight Tony Awards and won two. It took off restricted to a limited time, ticket sales and fans kept it running for two years on Broadway as a national tour with over a thousand shows. A version of the musical is also set to debut in London’s West End this year.

“It obviously surprised everyone. No. 1, the quality of what we did. And No. 2, the success of it,” Menken said.

The Broadway musical kept the same premise but added seven songs, a few different characters, and alternate lyrics.

The movie didn’t reach the same heights because of the lack of quality in promotion, according to Arvie Lowe Jr., right, who played Boots.

Afterall, everything worked out in the end. Because if Disney didn’t come out with a failure, there would be no cult classic today.

Published by: HOLR Magazine.