Carrying The Banner

RACE:
Hey! That's my cigar!

ALBERT:
You'll steal anudder.

SPECS:
Hey, look, it's bath time at the zoo!

HENRY:
I thought that I'd surprise my mother.

ALBERT:
If you can find her.

NEWSIES:
Who asked you?!

RACE:
From Bottle Alley to the harbor
There's easy pickin's guaranteed
Try any banker, bum, or barber
They almost all knows how to read!

JACK:
It's a crooked game we're playing,
One we'll never lose.
Long as suckers don't mind paying,
Just to get bad news!

NEWSIES:
Aint it a fine life
Carrying the banner through it all
A mighty fine life,
Carrying the banner tough and tall
When the bell rings,
We goes where we wishes,
We's as free as fishes
Sure beats washing dishes
What a fine life,
Carrying the banner home-free all!

FINCH:
(Spoken)
Hey, Crutchie! What's your leg say?
Gonna rain?

CRUTCHIE:
Uhh, no rain.
Oh-ho! Partly cloudy, clear by evening!

RACE:
Ha!
And the limp sells fifty papes a week,
all by itself!

CRUTCHIE:
Ah, I don't need the limp to sell papes.
I got poisonality!
(Sung)
It takes a smile that spreads like butter,
The kind that turns a lady's head.

RACE:
It takes an orphan with a stutter,

FINCH:
Who's also blind-

ALBERT:
And mute-

ELMER:
And dead!

CRUTCHIE, BUTTONS, JO-JO:
Summer stinks and winters freezing
When you works outdoors

JACK, TOMMY BOY, CRUTCHIE, BUTTONS, JO-JO:
Start out sweatin,
End up sneezin'
In between it pours!

NEWSIES:
Still it's a fine life,
Carrying the banner with me chums,
A bunch of big shots,
Tossin' out a freebie to the bums.

FINCH:
Hey, what's the hold up,
Sitting makes me antsy
I likes livin' chancey

NEWSIES:
Harlem to Delancey,
What a fine life
Carrying the banner through the...

NUNS:
Blessed children,
Though you wander lost and depraved,
Jesus loves you,
You shall be saved

(Next two verses simultaneously)

RACE:
Curdled coffee,
Concrete donuts sprinkled with mold
Homemade biscuits
Just two years old

ELMER: Just gimme half a cup.
HENRY: Something to wake me up.
ROMEO: I gotta find an angle
TOMMY BOY: It's gettin' bad out there.
MUSH: Papers is all I got.
SPECS: It's eighty-eight degrees.
JO-JO: Jack says to change my spot.
SNIPER: Wish I could catch a breeze
FINCH: Maybe it's worth a shot.
BUTTONS: All I can catch is fleas.

JACK:
If I hate a headline
I'll make up the headline

JACK AND CRUTCHIE:
And I'll say anything I have'ta
'Cause at two for a penny

JACK, CRUTCHIE, RACE, AND ROMEO:
If I take too many
Weasel just makes me eat 'em afta'!

(Next two verses simultaneously)

NEWSIES GROUP 1:
Got a feelin' bout the headline!
I smells me a headline!
Papes are gonna sell
Like we was givin' them away!
Bet'ya dinner it's a doozy
'Bout a pistol-packin' floozy,
Who knows how to make a Newsie's day!

NEWSIES GROUP 2:
I do, too!
So it must be true!
What a switch!
Soon we'll all be rich!
Don't know any better way to
Make a Newsie's day!

NEWSIES TOGETHER:
You wanna move the new edition?!
Give us an earthquake or a war!

ELMER:
How 'bout a crooked politician?

NEWSIES:
Ya nitwit, that ain't news no more!
Uptown to Grand Central Station
Down to City Hall
We improves our circulation
Walkin' till we fall

(The next two are sung together )

NEWSIES GROUP 1:
But we'll be out there
Carrying the banner man to man!
We're always out there,
Soakin' every sucker that we can!
Here's the headline:
Newsies on a mission!
Kill the competition!
Sell the next edition!
We'll be out there
Carrying the banner!
See us out there,
Carrying the banner!
Always out there,
Carrying the banner!

NEWSIES GROUP 2:
Got a feelin' bout the headline!
I smells me a headline!
Papes are gonna sell
Like we was givin' them away!
Bet'ya dinner it's a doozy
'Bout a pistol-packin' floozy,
Don't know any better way
To make a Newsie's day!
I was stakin' out the circus,
And then someone said
That Coney's really hot
But when I got there
There was Spot,
With all his cronies,
Heck, I'm gonna take what little dough I got
And play with the ponies!
We at least deserves a headline
For the hours that they work us
Jeez, I bet if I just stayed
A little longer at the circus...

NEWSIES:
But we'll be out there
Carrying the banner man to man!
We're always out there,
Soakin' every sucker that we can!
Here's the headline:
Newsies on a mission!
Kill the competition!
Sell the next edition!
We'll be out there
Carrying the banner!
See us out there,
Carrying the banner!
Always out there,
Carrying the banner!
Ahh, ahh, ahh, go!