Racetrack Higgins/Spot Conlon
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| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Racetrack Higgins/Spot Conlon |
| Alternative name(s): | Sprace, Spracetrack |
| Gender category: | m/m, later f/m |
| Fandom: | Newsies |
| Canonical?: | no |
| Prevalence: | popular |
| Archives: | |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Spot/Race is the slash pairing between Spot Conlon and Racetrack Higgins from Newsies. In some later interpretations, it is f/m (usually bi4bi or t4t).
Canon
The ship probably originates from the song "King of New York," where Race says "Ain't I pretty?" and Spot appears to agree.
Fandom
West End
Newsies premiered on the West End in London in 2022, made especially notable by its newly diverse cast. Spot and the rest of the Brooklyn newsies were portrayed as women and Spot's main actress was Black. This caused some debate among fans of the ship, many of whom were upset by the new apparent heterosexuality.
is it bad that it’s taken away the sprace dynamic for me? like i’m still 100% on board with a nowhere near canon ship and it shouldn’t affect me they’ve decided to have spot be a girl, but it lowkey has? and i feel kinda guilty about it? idk i love my proshot boys. but i am 100% here for all the uk newsies cast they are amazing and so talented and it’s definitely my favourite production by far!!
firstly, what i think needs to be understood about newsies, is that it is theater, which means it is meant to be mutable. there is no one way. there should never be one way. it does not exist. secondly, theater does not exist in a fandom vacuum. its live every night, conceptually. theater is a live performance art. [...] when a huge, publicized, consistently sold out production comes along with spot conlon as not only a woman, but a woman of color (specifically black rn!) as the leader of the most feared group on stage, there becomes something much more important than a "sprace dynamic", which does not canonically exist in the musical anyway bro. you can't miss something that isn't there imo. often the story and casting within a story comes first, and goddamn if this isn't one of those times. lillie-pearl's spot brings bravado, swagger, confidence, and intimidation that is literally....fine maybe i'm being personal but it is slash gen incredible to see in technically a period piece! a black woman in leadership with that kind of assuredness! in such a popular musical! how is that not– automatically surpassing an often obsessed-over (yes i am. hinting at something here, straight girl fans) mlm ship?Rizz[1]
I think that if the only thing that bothers people is the ship dynamic then it could be that Spot really isn't the same character, and you can like the new character portrayal while not necessarily thinking they mesh with another character. [...] I think Uksies sprace would probably have a dynamic more like Ralbert than previous versions of sprace, bc Spot was really shown more as being cheeky rather than threatening in Uksies. The difference in protayal between adaptations isn't surprising, or even necesserily bad, but when people care about a character they're going to be mad about changes made to a character.thatnerdinthecorner[2]
Example Fanworks
Fics
- Everything You've Done Wrong by sloanne (2005)
- Behind Blue Eyes by clio21000 (2008)
- The Beast of Brooklyn by ArtemisRayne (2019)
- Theories of Conflict by WaitingForMy (2021)
Meta
- Gambling, Canes, and Head Nods by second_batgirl at The Shipper's Manifesto and The Refuge[3] (2005)
- Relationship Analysis: Spot and Race at Newsiepedia (2019)
- Spot x Racetrack (Newsies) with Savannah on The Shipping (Pod)Cast (2021)
Fannish Links
- Spot Conlon/Racetrack Higgins tag on AO3
- Racetrack H., Spot C. in Newsies (Movie) on Fanfiction.net
- Race, Spot C. in Newsies (Play/Musical) on Fanfiction.net