‘Newsies’ brings boldface, all-caps DANCE! to the Fox

7:30 p.m. Jan. 21-22; 8 p.m. Jan. 23; 2 and 8 p.m. Jan. 24; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Jan. 25. Tickets start at $33. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 1-855-285-8499, www.foxtheatre.org.

Bottom line: Extra, extra! Delightful musical headlines Fox!

In 1899, New York’s newspaper delivery boys waged war on the titans of journalism — and as a sympathetic reporter declares in the Broadway musical “Newsies,” it was a classic David-and-Goliath moment.

As imagined by Disney in the musical telling of its 1992 film flop, the epic showdown posits charismatic labor leader Jack Kelly (Dan DeLuca) against the all-powerful Joseph Pulitzer (Steve Blanchard).

While the show, which plays the Fox Theatre through Sunday, employs an inky palette of black, white and gray to suggest the seedy, somber underbelly of Lower Manhattan, choreographer Christopher Gattelli and director Jeff Calhoun go in the other direction — staging the tale in a blaze of hyperkinetic dance and all-caps, boldface, banner-headline-stealing song.

The newsies — orphans and urchins of Dickensian ilk dressed appropriately in Jess Goldstein’s ragamuffin costumes — may be tired, hungry and economically disenfranchised. (There’s even a prescient, Tiny Tim-like tot and a noble newsie on a crutch.) But the boys know that right is might, and that the pen packs a powerful punch.

So led by the heroic Jack and aided by sympathetic reporter Katherine (Stephanie Styles), they march to the beat of a military drum and announce their revolution via soaring protest anthems (“Carrying the Banner,” “The World Will Know,” “Seize the Day”). Thanks to Tobin Ost’s sets and Jeff Croiter’s lighting, industrial scaffolding has never looked so beautiful.

As written by Harvey Fierstein (book), Alan Menken (music) and Jack Feldman (lyrics), "Newsies" may trot out every cliche in the musical-theater lexicon. (Influences that immediately come to mind are "Annie," "Oliver!" and "Urinetown," a much smarter grab bag of theatrical cross-references.) And yet, except for a murky segment at the top of Act 2 when nothing really seems to be happening, it wins you over with its unstoppable energy and occasional touches of irony.

Fancy footwork aside, the boys can be a pretty serious and somber bunch. But the women — including bawdy burlesque madame Medda Larkin (the wonderfully sultry Angela Grovey) — are a hoot.

Styles brings a snarky modern tone to Katherine. (Sometimes it seems as if she suddenly popped in from “Wicked.”) But try as she might to shrug off the flirtations of Jack, ultimately she can’t resist. “But that face,” she sighs.

Indeed, DeLuca — who is onstage virtually every moment of the show — makes a pretty persuasive case. Jack, as written, may be a bit of a caricature — the rough-hewn, street-smart kid with the problematic history under the towering ego — but DeLuca imbues his every last gesture with meaning and detail. He’s a strong vocalist, to be sure. He’s also a remarkable actor who fully inhabits his character.

In the role of the greedy and manipulative Pulitzer, Blanchard is top notch. And speaking of larger than life, Kevin Carolan’s cameo as Theodore Roosevelt (then the governor of New York) is quite funny.

But in the end, “Newsies” belongs to the chorus of riled-up newspaper slingers, who hoof, cartwheel, flip, stomp, march and pirouette across the stage with astonishing vigor. It’s the kids who start the presses that stop the show.