Source: Hometown Life

Author: David Veselenak

This year's spring musical at Mercy High School has been in the works for nearly seven years.

It started after Anne MacDougall, the school's performing arts chair, saw "Newsies" when a traveling production came to Detroit in 2012. She then knew her students just had to perform the show.

"I have had my eye on this show since Broadway did it. I really, really wanted to do it," she said. "So I started calling Music Theatre International, who we get the rights to do the show through, and I said 'When is it going to be available?' And they said, 'At the earliest, 2018.' 

See some scenes heree from Mercy High's Newsies musical production. The musical will be performed on March 8, 9, and 10.

"So we waited and waited and waited and we got an email that it was available."

And now students at the private Farmington Hills high school are putting the final touches on the performance about newspaper carriers going on strike in the late 1800s. The show, based on the mid-1990s Disney movie of the same name, will run Friday-Sunday (March 8-10) at Mercy High School, 29300 W. 11 Mile.

One of the biggest questions MacDougall has gotten is: how do you put on a show that features predominantly male characters for a school that only females attend?

"We knew, in our all-girls school, it features a lot of boys and a lot of people are thinking, 'What are you doing?'" she said. "But we have dressed our girls up as sailors and last year as chimney sweeps for "Mary Poppins," and we knew we could dress them up as newsies and they would be able to transform into young boys on stage. And they have done an excellent job."

One of those students in a male role is sophomore Grace Ajo, who plays "Crutchie." Ever since she saw the show last summer, she knew that was the character she wanted to portray.

"I knew automatically that I wanted to audition for Crutchie. Right away," said Ajo, who lives in West Bloomfield. "I just think he's an interesting character."

For some male roles, the production has reached out to several area high schools. Male students from schools such as Novi Detroit Catholic Central, Plymouth Christian, Orchard Lake St. Mary's, Livonia Stevenson and some home-schooled students to partake.

One of the show's leads, junior Caitlin Griffin of Lathrup Village has acted since she was a child. She's involved in plenty of other organizations, including Stagecrafters in Royal Oak, but said she's been very excited to perform in "Newsies" since she first saw it.

"I saw it on the tour and I always wanted to play Katherine," she said. "When I found out we were doing it, I was like, 'I'm playing Katherine.'"

The show will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. March 8 and 9, and at 2 p.m. March 10. Tickets are $17 and $15 for students and children. They can be purchased at the box office the day of the show or online on the high school's website, mhsmi.org.

Contact David Veselenak at dveselenak@hometownlife.com or 734-678-6728. Follow him on Twitter @davidveselenak.