Kara, Liana & Stephanie: The Star Heiress

This is my first compare and contrast article so please comment and tell me what you think:)

The role of Katherine Pulitzer was created in early 2010 by Harvey Fierstein when he got rid of Sarah Jacobs and Brian Denton. Katherine acts as a reporter for the New York Sun and a love interest for Jack Kelly. This caused a lot of backlash from the movie's loyal followers because the roles of Sarah Jacobs and Brian Denton was removed completely for the stage version. Katherine made her world premiere debut in 2011 when they stage version of the movie opened up in Paper Mill Playhouse and made headlines, which favored for the play.

"I've got a headline for you: Cheeky

Boy Gets Nothing for His Troubles"

~Katherine

Lindsay making her first
Broadway bow

Kara Lindsay, being the first person to portray Katherine, gave the character a short of childish expression upon her face when being confronted by her many Jack Kellys on Broadway. She uses a "what the hell" look when she hears about Joseph Pulitzer's plans on how they are going to deal with the rebellion against them. She also gives out the innocent look on her face when she gets confronted by her father with a piece of paper that has her plans written down on how the Newsies should take on the big guys.

Hunt looking at herself in
the mirror as Katherine

Liana Hunt's portrayal of Katherine is different; in fact, she goes onto a different direction. She relies heavily on attitude rather than characteristics. Liana gives out a sarcastic vibe when being confronted by Jack Kelly. She uses the whole "if only you knew" look when she's sitting down and on a chair, while being forced to listen to her father's plans against the rebels. She also gives out the whole "give me that"vibe when her father finds her plans on how to take down Pulitzer and Hearst.

Styles posing with a hand-
made Katherine doll

Stephanie Styles gives out the stubborn and outspoken vibe that the other two actors have been missing with their portrayal of Katherine, which gives the role an entirely new direction and a whole new level. People weren't used to seeing the artistic approach that Stephanie gave out. They were all used to the approaches that both Kara and Liana had to offer to the role. Stephanie, however. doesn't rely on one aspect of the character, just as the other two actors has been doing beforehand. She gives the character another side to her that takes a lot of courage for an actor to do. Her usage of tone and volume gives depth in Katherine's speech patterns, which actually adds to it rather than taking depth away from the character. Stephanie also gives out the whole "screw daddy" vibe going on during the character's rebellious scenes and fast-paced solo song.

"Give those kids and me; a brand new century!"

~Katherine

With interaction, all three actors got who the character trusts and who she doesn't trusts down; however, only Kara and Stephanie showed the historical aspects of the character correctly, while Liana showed modernization and the vibe that women are about to reach the rebellion stage after the year 1899 has ended.

All three actors embraces the Les Jacobs character and does their best to make Les a happy camper. Their interaction with Medda, however, is different from one another. Kara actually jumps with joy when Jack tells the Newsies that they won, She gives Medda a hug and after she woohooed around the place. Liana; she throws her arms up as if she's saying yay then quickly hugs Medda. Stephanie's approach is a mixture of Kara and Liana's approach with a hint of Belle's relationship with the Beast. Because Medda is rich and so is Stephanie.

"What's this about?"

~Jack Kelly

The actors' approaches when reacting with Jack Kelly is supposively about love but Kara had two main Jack Kellys, so I'll start there. Kara when Jeremy Jordan was Jack Kelly fave the interaction the whole lovey-dovey vibe, but when Corey Cott was Jack... Well, I can sense a bromantic vibe rather than a romantic one because I saw the whole brother-sister relationship come off their persona and into their acting.

Liana Hunt and Corey Cott gave the interaction another dimension because they worked pretty well together as romantic leads. Unlike Kara, Liana showed the audience an edge to the character, which worked pretty well when it came to do the roof top kissing scene; however, Stephanie's approach to interacting with Jack develops over the course of the story, which for me, works pretty well and gave the character's story-arch a little room to develop within the story itself.

"Regular beef from the star reporter!"

~Davey Jacobs

Lastly, Davey Jacobs. Both Kara and Stephanie places a hand on Davey because Davey is their friend, and he needs to know that they are there for him and that they care for him. Then we have Liana; Liana doesn't even touch Davey. She just crosses her arms and stands beside Davey. This is primarily because she thinks that Davey is ew and doesn't need her love and affection.

Sources

1. Kara Lindsay as Katherine - Newsies video bootleg
2. Liana Hunt as Katherine - Newsies video bootleg
3. Stephanie Styles as Katherine - Newsies video bootleg
4. Newsies fan transcribed script