Vocabulary and Character Analysis from Newsies - Katherine's Perspective

Jack: Morning, miss. Can I interest you in the latest news?

The paper isn't out yet

Jack: I'd be delighted to bring it to you personally

I've got a headline for you, "Cheeky Boy Gets Nothing for His Troubles!"

Jack: Well, hello again.

This is a private box.

Jack: Want I should lock the door? Twice in one day. Think it's fate?

Go away. I'm working

Jack: A working girl, huh? Doin' what?

Reviewing the show for the New York Sun

Jack: Hey! I work for the World.

Somewhere out there someone cares. Go tell them.

Jack: The view's better here

Please go. I am not in the habit of speaking to strangers

Jack: Then you're going to make a lousy reporter. The name's Jack Kelly.

Is that what it says on your rap sheet?

Jack: A smart girl. I admire smart girls. Beautiful, smart, independent.

Do you mind?

Jack: Love at first sights for suckers at least it used to be

What are you doing?

Jack: Quiet down. There's a show going on.

You are the most impossible boy-

Jack: Shhhh!

Ever.

Davey: Me? I have to...

Why's everyone so scared of Brooklyn?

Jack: What're you doin' here?

Asking a question. Have you got an answer?

Jack: For someone who works for the New York Sun, you spend an awful lot of time hanging around at the World. So, what's that about? You followin' me?

The only thing I'm following is a story. A rag-tag gang of ragamuffins wants to take on the kingmakers of New York. Think you have a chance?

Jack: Shouldn't you be at the ballet?

Is the question to difficult? I'll rephrase: will the richest and most powerful men in New York give the time of day to a gang of kids who haven't got a nickel to their name?

Crutchie: You don't gotta be insultin'. I got a nickel.

So I guess you'd say you're a couple of Davids looking to take on Goliath?

Davey: We never said that.

You didn't have to. I did.

Jack: I seen a lot of papes in my time and I ain't never noted no girl reporters writing hard news

Wake up to the new century. The game's changing. How about an exclusive interview?

Jack: Ain't your beat entertainment?

This is entertaining... so far

Jack: What's the last news story you wrote?

What's the last strike you organized?

Romeo: You're out of your league, Kelly. Methinks the lady needs to be handled by a real man.

You thinks wrong, Romeo.

Davey: I saw we save any exclusive for a real reporter

You see somebody else giving you the time of day?

All right, so I'm just busting out of the social pages. But you give me the exclusive, let me run with the story, and I promise I'll get you the space.

Crutchie: You really think we could be in the papes?

Shut down a paper like the World, and you're going to make the front page.

Davey: Come on, Les. The folks are waiting

So, what's your story? Are you selling newspapers to work your way through art school?

Jack: Art school? You kiddin' me?

But you're an artist. You've got real talent. You should be inside the paper illustrating, not outside hawking it.

Jack: Maybe that ain't what I want

So tell me what you want

Jack: can't you see it in my eyes?

Have you always been their leader?

Jack: I'm a blowhard. Davey's the brains.

Modesty is not a quality I would have pinned on you.

Jack: You got a name?

Katherine... Plumber

Jack: What's the matter? Ain't ya sure?

It's my byline, the name I publish under. Tell me about tomorrow. What are you hoping for.

Jack: I'd rather tell you what I'm hoping for tonight.

Mr. Kelly...

Jack: Today we stopped our newsies from carrying out papes, but the wagons still delivered to the rest of the city. Tomorrow, we stop the wagons.

Are you scared?

Jack: Do I look scared? But ask me again in the morning.

Good answer. Good night, Mr. Kelly.

Jack: Come on, where you runnin'? It ain't even supper time!

I'll see you in the morning. And, off the record, good luck.

Jack: Hey, Plumber. Write it good. We both got a lot ridin' on you

You heard the man, "Write it good." Write it good, or it's back to wheezing your way through the flower show. No pressure. Let's go.

"Newsies Stop the World." A little hyperbole never hurt anyone

"With all eyes fixed on the trolley strike, there's another battle brewing in the city..."

...and if I could just write about it...

Come on, Katherine, the boys are counting on you. Oh, you poor boys.

...They'll storm the gates and then just watch what happens when they do!

"A modern day David is poised to take on the rich and powerful Goliath. With the swagger of one twice his age, armed with nothing more than a few nuggets of truth, Jack Kelly stands ready to face the behemoth Pulitzer." Now that's how you turn a boy into a legend!

Race: To prove they's still alive

Good morning gentlemen... Would you get a load of these glum mugs? Can these really be the same boys who made front page of the New York Sun?

Davey: You got us in the pape?

You got yourselves in the pape.

Specs: What else you got?

Mine's the only story that ran. Pulitzer declared a blackout on strike news, so even I'm shut down now. I heard they arrested Crutchie. Did they get Jack too?

Race: Am-scray punk she's the king of New York!

Who'd a thunk! I'm the king of New York

Newsies: We was sunk pale and pitiful

Bunch of wet noodles, pulitzers poodles

Race: And drowned us in ink!

So let's get drunk

Newsies: Yeah!

Not with liquor, fame works quicker when you're king of New York

Jack: Word is you wrote a great story

You look like hell

Davey: It's Santa Fe

I've got to tell you, Jack, this "Go west, young man" routine is getting tired. Even Horace Greeley moved back to New York.

Jack: Ain't reporters supposed to be non-partisan?

Ask a reporter. Pulitzer's had me blacklisted from every news desk in town-

Jack: Smart enough to get you committed to a padded room!

The guy who paints places he's never seen is calling us crazy?

Pulitzer: ...But you're done with all of that now, aren't you, sweetheart?

Jack, I-

Jack: enters

That was some speech you made

Jack: How'd you get here?

Specs showed me

Jack: He say you could go through my stuff?

I saw them rolled up, sticking out of there. I didn't know what they were. These drawings...? These are drawings of The Refuge, aren't they?

Is this really what it's like in there: three boys to a bed, rats everywhere, and vermin?

Jack: A little different from where you were raised?

Snyder told my father you were arrested stealing food and clothing. This is why, isn't it? You stole to feed those boys.

I don't understand. If you were willing to go to jail for those boys, how could you turn your back on them now?

Jack: I don't think you're anyone to talk about turning on folks.

I never turned on you or anyone else

Jack: No. You just double crossed us to your father. Your father!!!!

My father has eyes on every corner of this city. He doesn't need me spying for him. And I never lied. I didn't tell you everything....

Jack: If you weren't a girl you'd be trying to talk with a fist in your mouth

I said that I worked for the Sun, and I did. I told you my professional name was Plumber, and it is. You never asked my real one.

Jack: I wouldn't think I had to unless I knew I was dealing with a backstabber.

And if I was a boy, you'd be looking at me through one swollen eye.

Jack: Don't let that stop ya. Gimme your best shot.

I need to know you didn't cave for the money

Jack: ...I don't know what else we can do

Ah. But I do.

Jack: Oh, come on...

Really, Jack? Really? Only you can have a good idea? Or is it because I'm a girl?

Jack: I didn't say nothin'

This would be a good time to shut up. Being boss doesn't mean you have all the answers. Just the brains to recognize the right one when you hear it.

Jack: I'm listening

Good for you. the strike was your idea. The rally was Davey's. And now my plan will take us to the finish line. Deal with it.

Jack: "The Children's Crusade"?

"For the sake of all the kids in every sweatshop, factory, and slaughter house in New York, I beg you... join us." With those words, the strike stopped being just about the newsies. You challenged our whole generation to stand up and demand a place at the table.

Jack: "The Children's Crusade"??

Think, Jack, if we publish this - my words with one of your drawings - and if every worker under twenty-one read it and stayed home from work... or better yet, came to Newsie Square - a general city-wide strike! Even my father couldn't ignore that.

Jack: Only one small problem: we got no way to print it.

Come on, there has to be one printing press he doesn't control

Jack: Oh, no.

What?

Jack: I know where there's a printing press that no one would ever think we'd use

Then why are we still standing here?

Jack: ...What's this about? Am I kiddin' myself or is there something...

Of course there is

Jack: Well, don't say it like this happens every day!

Oh, Jack...

Jack: ...If there was a way I could grab hold of something to make time stop. Just so's I could keep looking at you.

You snuck up on me, Jack Kelly. I never even saw it coming.

Jack: For sure?

For sure.

Jack: IF things were different...

If you weren't going to Santa Fe?

Jack: And if you weren't an heiress. And if your father wasn't after my head.

You're not really scared of my father

Jack: No. But I'm pretty scared of you!

Don't be.

Enter cellar w/Jack

I'll get the lights. You get those windows unlocked.

Jack: You got enough keys here for the entire building. Has someone been picking daddy's pockets?

The janitor's been working here since he was eight and hasn't had a raise in twenty years. He's with us one-hundred percent.

Jack: Shut up

Here she is, boys. Just think, while my father snores blissfully in his bed, we will be using his very own press to bring him down.

Darcy: I can see why they tossed this old girl down to the cellar, but I think she will do the job.

Jack, this is Darcy. He knows just about everything there is to know about printing.

Jack: What?

And this is Bill. He'll be typesetting the article for us.

Jack: Ain't that somethin'?

In the words of the little one, "Can we table the palaver and get down to business?"

Newsies: ...This time the union awakes once and for all!

"In the words of union leader Jack Kelly, "We will work with you. We will even work for you. But we will be paid and treated as valuable members of your organizations." Riveting stuff, huh?

Jack: Get going. You've got a very important man to see.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Davey: Don't you ever get tired of singing that same old tune? What's Santa Fe got that New York ain't? Sand storms?

Better yet: what's New York got that Santa Fe ain't?

Medda: Come along, Governor, and show me the back seat I've been hearing so much about.

Well, don't just stand there, you've got a union to run. Besides, didn't someone just offer you a pretty exciting job?

Jack: Me work for your father?

You already work for my father

Jack: Oh, yeah

And you've got one more ace up your sleeve

Jack: What would that be?

Me. Wherever you go, I'm there right by your side.

Jack: For sure?

For sure.