Jackcrutchie

Jackcrutchie is the slash ship between Jack Kelly and Charlie "Crutchie" Morris from the Newsies fandom.

1992 Movie
Jack and Crutchie are both newsies living in Manhattan. It is unclear how they met, but they seem to be on good terms. Crutchie trusts Jack enough to ask him "when I walk, does it look like I'm faking it?", to which Jack replies no. He then becomes protecive, asking Crutchie who would have told him that and putting his arm around Crutchie's shoulder. Later, when Davey first arrives, Crutchie praises Jack's selling ability, saying it's a chance of a lifetime and "you learn from Jack, you learn from the best", possibly implying that he and Jack have sold papers together at some point in the past.

When Crutchie gets kidnapped by the Delancy brothers, Snyder, and the Bulls and is taken to the Refuge, Jack comes to visit him, making Davey come along. Jack makes Davey lower him down by rope so that he can get to the window where Crutchie is. Crutchie is delighted and confused that Jack would come to visit him. Jack offers to break Crutchie out of the Refuge, but Crutchie declines, saying that he hasn't been walking very well after the Delancy brothers beat him up. When Jack hears this, he gets angry that they had hurt him, but again offers to help Crutchie escape, this time saying that he and Davey can carry Crutchie out if necessary. Crutchie is blatantly opposed to this and switches the conversation to talk to Davey about Jack. Their conversation is interrupted when Snyder walks into the room and Crutchie has to distract him so he doesn't see Jack dangling by rope right outside the window.

While in the Refuge, cleaning after Snyder's breakfast, Crutchie notices Jack's picture in the newspaper Snyder is reading. Without thinking, he mentions it out loud, saying "he looks just like hisself", but when Snyder questions this, asking if Crutchie knows him, Crutchie immediately backtracks, desperately trying to take back his statement, saying it was just his brain making mistakes. Eventually this slip-up leads to Snyder going to the Newsboys' Lodging House in search of Jack.

Jack is sent to the Refuge by Pulitzer and is put in a special holding cell. Crutchie manages to find him and offers him a potato that he stole off of Snyder's dinner plate through a slit in Jack's cell door. Jack, still concerned for Crutchie despite his current emotional turmoil, asks Crutchie how much longer in the Refuge the stealing's going to get him. Crutchie says it's probably another few months, but that it doesn't really matter, reminding Jack of how he always taught the newsies to be optimistic and to never let "them" beat you. Jack replies that they were beat when they were born and Crutchie closes the slit. While Jack laments his role in life, Crutchie returns but says nothing because Jack is currently lamenting.

Jack greets Crutchie upon his return from the Refuge and Crutchie enthusiastically tells Jack about how Teddy Roosevelt saved him and the other boys in the Refuge.

Broadway
Crutchie plays a much more central role in the Newsies Broadway show, being a much closer friend to Jack and a big contributor to Jack's emotional state throughout the show.

The show opens with Jack and Crutchie sleeping on the same rooftop when Crutchie wakes up and starts to get ready for the day, prompting Jack to ask what he's doing. Once he explains, Jack tells him to slow down and enjoy the moment. Crutchie tries to climb down from the rooftop, but slips and falls. Luckily, Jack catches him by the arm and manages to pull him back up, gently scolding him for his recklessness. They engage in some banter about Jack wanting to leave New York before the song "Santa Fe (Prologue)" starts. In the song, Jack shares with Crutchie his dream of leaving New York and living in Santa Fe. Jack offers to take Crutchie with him, telling no one will care if he has to use a crutch and that in Santa Fe he might not even need a crutch, saying that he could ride horses and that the clean air will probably do well enough for his leg that it might heal him. After Crutchie saddens, remembering his disability, Jack comforts him, wrapping his arms around Crutchie protectively.

During the song "Carrying the Banner", Jack and Crutchie playfully fight with each other. Jack is seen tying Crutchie's shoe in the background as newsies in the front perform a dance number. In the 2017 live filming of the musical, Jack and Crutchie can often be seen together in the back of dance numbers as Crutchie cannot dance in character because of his leg, and Jeremy Jordan, who plays Jack, cannot dance (at least not on par with the other ensemble members). Jack is incredibly touchy and affectionate with the other newsies, but especially with Crutchie. He ofen has an arm around Crutchie or a hand on his shoulder or back.

When the newsboys are making fun of the Delancy brothers and Morris retaliates, taking it out on Crutchie, knocking him to the ground, Jack immediately goes on the defensive, pushing Morris off of Crutchie telling him that that's not nice and maybe someday he'll have a bad leg of his own, then proceeds to hit the Delancy brothers in the legs with Crutchie's crutch.

Jack and Crutchie read the newspaper together on the wagon that carries papers as Davey is introduced. Again, upon Davey's arrival, Crutchie praises Jack's adventures and his selling ability to Davey, much like in the original movie. When they newsies start coming up with the idea for a strike, Crutchie nominates Jack for Union President, to which Jack jokingly replies "gee, I'm touched."

In the live filming, after Race insults Crutchie’s homemade strike sign, Jack holds Crutchie’s face in his hands, trying to comfort him.

As the strike turns sour and the newsies are facing a thorough beating from the Bulls, Jack and Crutchie try to run away from the Delancy brothers. Jack succeeds, but Crutchie, because of his leg, is unable, being stopped in his tracks and beaten by Snyder with his own crutch as Jack can do nothing but watch from above, torn between his fear of Snyder and his wanting to save his friend. Eventually Crutchie is dragged away, arrested and taken to the Refuge.

When Crutchie is kidnapped, it leads Jack into a pit of despair and he sings the song "Santa Fe" about how much he wants to get out of New York and how Crutchie's kidnapping was all his fault. He is not seen by his fellow newsies for quite some time.

Crutchie writes an encouraging letter to Jack while in the refuge in the song "Letter from the Refuge", which was not in the original Broadway perfomances, but was added later. He makes jokes about the conditions in the Refuge, telling Jack how the guards are rude and how they haven’t been given any food. He tells Jack how he misses the time they spent on the rooftop together and says that once he gets out of the Refuge, maybe they can go to Santa Fe together, just like Jack had always dreamed. He tells Jack to keep going and the newsies will win the strike, no matter what happens.

Jack, still sulking in solitude, is found by Davey, Katherine, and Les painting a picture of Santa Fe. They try to convince him to return to the others and to the strike, but Jack mentions how he went to try to see Crutchie after receiving his letter, but that he was so beat up that he couldn’t come to the window. Jack says that it’s basically his fault that Crutchie got this way. Davey, again trying to persuade Jack asks him “how does quitting do Crutchie any good?” to which Jack responds with either speechlessness or an exasperated and exhausted noise. Davey takes this as proof of Jack agreeing.

Pulitzer, when cornering and guilting Jack, says “I know you’re Mr. Tough Guy, but it’s not right to condemn that little crippled boy to conditions like that.” In most versions, upon Crutchie’s return, and after Snyder is taken away for good, Jack runs to embrace Crutchie. In the live filming, he simply pats Crutchie on the back.

As Jack plans to finally leave New York, Crutchie tries to convince him to stay, saying that “New York’s got us. And we’re family,” referring to Jack’s line earlier in the show.

The show ends with Jack deciding to stay in New York for an indefinite amount of time, probably for the rest of his life.

Fanon
This ship, while semi-popular, is often overshadowed by the popularity of Javid and the canon relationship between Jack and Katherine (or in the 1992 version, Jack and Sarah). Some controversy was sparked by the fact that, in "Letter from the Refuge", and throughout the show, Crutchie and Jack refer to each other as "brother" or "family". This caused some people to think that the two were actually related, when in fact it is only them saying that they were as close as brothers or like a family, not that they are actually related. More controversy was sparked by the characters' ages. Jack is canonically seventeen, but Crutchie's age is often changed around with different adaptations. Some adaptations have Crutchie played by a child about as old as Les, Davey's brother, or slightly older, which caused problems with some fans, however, in both original versions, Crutchie is no younger than fifteen, only creating a two year age gap between the two.

Most people in the fandom prefer the ship platonically.

Fandom
FAN FICTION