Disney's "Newsies" lyrics cleaned up for Broadway with altered lines

"Newsies" has now been on Broadway for several months and it's been playing to pretty positive reviews. Based on the 1992 cult-favorite film of the same name, the new show brings the charm and catchy music to the live stage.

Expanding the film into a full stage-worthy musical is obviously no easy task. Alan Menken, who helped create the original songs for the film, returned to work on the new score and create new songs for the musical. Apart from creating new songs, expanding the show also included lengthening some of the existing ones and altering lines to better fit a storyline modified for the stage.

Not all lines here were modified striclty for the story, though. Fans of the movie who can recall singing along to their cassette decks might find quite a few very minor changes through-out the various numbers that were made to clean up the lyrics and make the very non-risque original lines even more Disney-friendly.

Below are some of the altered lines. What's your take?


In "Carrying the Banner" the memorable opening line about the stolen cigar remains however the following line "hey bummers we got work to do" was swapped instead with "hey, look it's bathtime at the zoo." Perhaps not quite so risque to call them "bummers" but the swap did unsettle me right off the bat in listening to the Broadway version of the show. The iconic first segment of the first line had a randomly switched lyric!

But this is not the only change to the song. In fact, this song probably more than any other from the original film has quite a few changes to it.

Calling someone "stupid" today has somehow taken on a more negative connotation than it did in the early 90's. Or so I would assume as the line "Hey stupid, that ain't news no more" is changed to "Hey nitwit, that ain't news no more." Can't have children calling each other stupid, but nitwit is ok!

In the original film when the newsies are talking about the kinda headlines that they are looking for, they prey for "a good assassination." Perhaps in an effort to avoid any uncomfortable awkwardness in the case of a real assassination the newsies now clamor that they "wanna move the next edition."


Violence is an important aspect in the film with the fearsome Delancy's and the trolley strikes. Still, Newsie violence was altered in "Carrying the Banner" by removing "an orphan with a stutter who ain't afraid to use his fists" and instead changing it to "an orphan with a stutter who's also blind and mute and dead."

Oddly, while "Carrying the Banner" opens with mention of kids with cigars, the later reference was removed in "King of New York." Instead of the kids dreaming about being able to purchase "Havana cigars that cost a quarter," they now think with their stomachs by dreaming about being able to purchase "pastrami on rye with a sour pickle."

In "The World Will Know" there's a more reverent approach to elders with the swap of "and the old will fall" into "and the old will weap." Effectively, it's not about bringing down an old tyrant but just by making him unhappy. Somehow just not as encouraging a war-cry in such a motivational song.

So that's just a few examples that jumped out to this Newsies fan noticed. What do you think of the Newsies Musical soundtrack?