The dancing is kind of like the dancing from West Side Story- they were trying to make it as masculine as possible. But the music is absolutely the best part (and, ahem, the pelvic thrusts are... well, a fandom favorite... or obsession, whatever) and the movie is really very short. (Do not watch the TV version of the movie that shows up now and then on the Disney channel- they cut out several bits that totally ruin the flow of the story and make everything harder to understand.) But yes, Christian Bale, and Max Casella, and David Moscow- and Bill Pullman and Ann-Margaret and Robert Duvall and the guy who played Sawyer's dad in LOST all in various adult roles.

Canon based fic- well, here's my favorites from The Refuge- which is the chief Newsies slash archive (be very, very careful looking into Newsies het- there is some good stuff, but woe, the many sparklypants female OC Newsies fic....) http://refuge.queenitsy.com/viewuser.php?action=favstor&uid=189 They are all labeled either 1899 and then genre, or modern and genre. There is also a set of forums on the site- we are a very small, friendly and wank-free group, I promise!

Also, here is the Newsies Fanlore page, a large portion of which I wrote. http://fanlore.org/wiki/Newsies It might help you get a feel for the fandom.

ETA: I just looked at my list of favorites- to start with I really suggest "Hand Rolled" and "Spit Shake".