Mick Jagger and 'SNL' Keep On Rolling Along

" TOTO, WE'RE still in Kansas!" someone wisecracked to me as we exited a rowdy enthusiastic audience-thrilled crowd at last Sunday's matinee of the big Broadway hit "Newsies: The Musical."

As many things as I'd liked about this show, I had to laugh at such a sophisticated rejoinder. It is wonderful to have a family hit at the Nederlander Theater. The cast is athletic, joyous and talented. They can really dance and really sing and they are so appealing. But the story of the
fight of New York newsboys against Joseph Pulitzer just before the turn of the 20th century, did seem a little naive and unsophisticated, as well as limited and repetitious.

But who am I to quarrel with such success? Audiences simply go out of their minds at this multi-Tony nominated, acrobatic exercise with its single utilitarian set and its "power to the people" theme. Everybody likes to root for the under dog, except when they don't bother to, in private life. And matinee audiences pay a hell of a lot for a ticket to anything on the Great White Way. They are entitled to really enjoy themselves at a commercial success.

I did wonder, however, watching this particular audience roar for the working poor, how many of them even know about the important union-busting fight going on now in the state of Wisconsin, where the GOP is simply shoveling in dough to keep Gov. Scott Walker from being "recalled" and taken out of office? Union teachers and nurses and many others in the disillusioned Wisconsin labor force are busy now fighting the same fight that is shown onstage in "Newsies." Publishers Hearst and Pulitzer and the big business bosses of New York, after the Spanish-American war, were intent on grinding their heels on the masses. No kidding? It has ever been thus.

This show makes a hero out of then Gov. Teddy Roosevelt and that's part of the fun of it. But can the applauding, screaming, yelling audiences at the Nederlander carry over such enthusiasm in real life? I kind of doubt it and I fear Gov. Walker's out-of-state millions from the Koch brothers and others like them will win the fight against union-busting in Wisconsin. (Conservatives continue their successes state by state!)

• THIS SAID, if you are looking for a show to take your children and out-of-town-visitors to; they will love "Newsies." It's full of mostly "poor white boys," tapping their hearts out and using Brooklynese accents that put to shame the controversy over whether or not the black actors now in "Porgy and Bess" are doing the correct thing! The three leads (Jeremy Jordan, John Dossett and Kara Lindsay) are simply knockout actors and singers. They make us feel their fury, passion, love, and hate. Ms. Lindsay is a real "find" in a theater that no longer makes many stars out of ingenues and leading ladies and when she shows her white bloomers under her long dress, she is adorable. She also has a stand-out song (to my way of thinking) when she emotes over how her newspaper story will "write itself" and then proceeds to "wonder" how she'll do it?

• I HAVEN'T read Mick Jagger's reviews for his hosting stint on the season finale of "Saturday Night Live," but I thought the Rolling Stone was mighty amusing. No moss gathering that I could see. If Mick had not been so profitably good at his day job--rock 'n' roll singer--he would have certainly made a bigger noise as an actor. He has presence. He's funny. He's very smart. He's sexy. (Mostly because he's funny and smart.) Well, at age 68-- which is about 45 these days--time is still on Mick's side.

The show also marked Kristin Wiig's farewell, after seven seasons. The comic actress, Oscar-nominated for her "Bridesmaids" screenplay, belongs to Hollywood now.

I cannot critique or explain musical guests the Foo Fighters, and Arcade Fire. Give me points for having remembered their names! What struck me was the realization that this was the 37th season finale of "SNL."Popular culture has undergone massive changes in 37 years, but Lorne Michael's satiric baby carries on-- now watched on iPads, iPhones, DVR'd, Hulu-ed and
YouTubed.

• "The reason there's no modern-day Shakespeare is because he didn't have anything to do except sit in a room with a candle and think!" That's Soundgarden musician Chris Cornell, in Details magazine.