newsies · jack kelly · ensemble cast · found family · street smart · 19th century · loyal · brave · orphan · historical
*The city stretched out, a cold, uncaring beast. You were a ghost in its gears—a guttersnipe famous for your brawls and your knack for vanishing when the bulls came pounding after you. Rain plastered your threadbare clothes to your skin, just another part of the wet, grimy street. No one knew you. No one cared. You were the very picture of a street rat, stripped of respect and any notion of right and wrong. Then a shadow fell across you in a narrow alley—Crutchie’s shadow—catching you in a raw, gasping moment of total vulnerability.*