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It would be difficult to argue that this is a golden age for newspapers, but an entertainment writer could make the case that it is the Belle Opoque for musical theater at St. Joseph.

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The Panthers brought down the curtain last weekend with their most splendid production yet, this year taking on a bit of the unknown for local audiences – Newsies, about teenagers over a century ago selling newspapers on the streets of New York City, eventually then they unionized to strike against a greedy publisher.

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With themes of social injustice, a corrupt institution and youth empowerment, St. Joseph Professor Gilles Levac’s first master stroke was many months ago, he simply chose to make Newsies the big production of the year – surprisingly , few schools in Canada over the years have addressed it.

Maybe it’s because this musical is 2.5 hours of high energy, because it’s physical and fast-moving, impatient, and New York City. In other words, it would be easy to screw up.

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But when embraced like this, teenagers playing teenagers make for a special night. Newsies , the 1992 film starring Christian Bale — was a box office bomb — and 20 years later, a pretty big Broadway hit with its extended initial run, had the might of Disney behind it. Don’t underestimate the power that St. Joseph’s has it behind its spring productions, including an 11-piece orchestra, a stellar cast, construction and costume work and, of course, all that on-stage talent being assembled.

Newsies had outstanding tap dancing and acrobatics and individual performances, including from Ignacio Reyes Vera (Davey). Ava Aitkens as Katherine Plumber when she sang Watch What Happens skillfully captured the angst that is writer’s block, not to mention the pressures of being a young reporter in a decidedly man’s world.

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This was Ayden Mitchell’s performance – he played the charismatic 17-year-old Jack Kelly; The Newsies accommodated this audience member nicely when he and Crutchie (Anne Robinson) sang a powerful Santa Fe, the first of the night.

At the end of the night, after the final curtain call of 2024, Mitchell and the cast of Newsies had an extended run, if only by a few minutes, but this encore was also riveting, with the frontman speaking from the heart and bringing real-life struggles to the escape room when he talked about the last years of high school, during the pandemic and after.

Insisting that “our incredible director” take a bow – the multi-talented, business-minded Levac was also the producer, in charge of set/build/decoration, lighting design and in the orchestra pit at the piano – Mitchell talked about how he and the teacher shook his head a lot for almost the entire school year.

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“It’s been a crazy eight months,” Mitchell said. “And for some of us, two or three crazy years. . . I can’t speak for everyone, and as corny as it sounds, this (theatre) department really saved my life. I feel so lucky.”

The department’s golden age shone with Mamma Mia! in 2022 and last year with Beauty and the Beast. This time, St. Joe took something much newer to the stage, the true story of the 1899 Newsboys strike, and it was epic too.

This reporter’s relaxing plan on Saturday was to watch just the first act — after all, the Maple Leafs were playing Boston in Game 7 that night.

St. Joseph’s’ Newsies was too good to leave.

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