Show Synopsis:
Jack Kelly dreams of moving away from New York to Santa Fe, but at the moment he is stuck being a newsboy in the Big Apple. He meets two brothers, Davey and Les, who need to earn money for their family while their father is out of work, and on their second day on the job, Joseph Pulitzer raises the price that they newsboys pay to receive their papers in each morning. Jack and Davey organize a strike, which turns into a violent confrontation with strikebreakers and policemen. Crutchie, a newsboy with a bad leg, is beaten and taken to the children?s refuge, and Jack deserts the strike out of frustration. Katherine, a reporter Jack has been flirting with, reports on the strike and helps Davey and Les get Jack involved with the strike again. Katherine finds out from the refuge warden that Jack is an escaped criminal, and Jack finds out that Katherine is Pultizer?s daughter. Pultizer offers Jack money to leave for Santa Fe if he calls off the strike, and he accepts it, although the strike is growing strong. Jack tells Katherine that the reason he has a criminal past is because the conditions in the refuge were so terrible he had to steal basic necessities for the younger boys there. They profess their love for each other and then work with the other newsies to print their own paper about the injustices of various institutions in the city. Pulitzer and Jack reach a fair compromise so that the strike ends, and Governor Theodore Roosevelt shuts down the refuge. Jack plans to go to Santa Fe, but decides to remain a newsie in New York with his friends and Katherine.

Character:
Medda Larkin, a generous and talented vaudeville performer; a self-made African-American woman, and proud of it.

Song Context:
Medda performs one of her signature songs.

Fun Facts:
1) This musical was based on the 1992 cult musical movie of the same name based on the 1899 New York City Newsboys Strike. 
2) Capathia Jenkins originated the role of Medda on Broadway and described her research process in an interview Backstage magazine: In my research and thinking about playing her, the year is 1899, and I'm thinking about my ancestors and who actually had entrepreneurial skills back then. I know about Madam C.J. Walker, who was the first African-American millionaire woman. But that was like 1905 or 1906. We're fudging the years just a little bit. Medda owns a burlesque theater. She's running a tight ship but she has a sweet spot in her heart for Jack Kelly, played by Jeremy. In this particular production she's instrumental in helping the newsies get a fair shake. She knows people in the community, in particular Roosevelt. I say Medda has friends in high places and probably a couple in low places. She's that kind of broad. But she's got a heart of gold, and she's a well-respected figure in the community...I knew I wanted to play her sassy and in charge. And for me, the knowledge that that there were people of color back then who did own things and could pull themselves up by their bootstraps and could own a theater and have a mortgage and run a business. That was just important for me to know so that I can view her as something real as opposed to, ?I'm just going to play this sassy woman who wouldn't have even been around in 1899.?  
3) In the original musical movie, Medda was a Swedish immigrant who had made her name as a burlesque star and theater owner. Although she was still a matronly figure for Jack and the other boys, the musical emphasizes Medda?s self-made status as an African-American woman in the early twentieth century and makes her more of a caregiver than she was in the original film.