On The Town

On the Town is playing at the Lyric Theatre at 213 West 42nd Street. The musical runs two hours twenty five minutes with one intermission. It is an open ended run.

It was produced at the Adelphi Theatre on December 28, 1944. The show closed on February 2, 1946, it ran 462 performances. The first Broadway revival opened at the Imperial Theatre on October 31, 1971. It closed on January 1, 1972 after 73 performances. Bernadette Peters was nominated for a Tony award for her performance in this show. The second revival on Broadway was on November 19, 1998. It ran for 69 performances. Mary Testa was nominated for a Tony Award for this role.

MGM film opened on December 8, 1949. It starred Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.

Leonard Bernstein wrote the music. He won a Tony Award in 1954 for “Wonderful Town.

Betty Comden and Adolph wrote the book and lyrics. They won four Tony Awards for “The Will Rogers Follies” (1991), “On the Twentieth Century” (1978 best book & original score), “Applause (1970), “Hallelujah Baby! (1968 best book, composer and lyricist),”Wonder Town”. The team was nominated for four Tony Awards for “Singin’ in the rain” (1986), “A Doll’s Life (1983), “Do Re Mi” (1961) and “Bells Are Ringing” (1957).

John Rando is the director. He won a Tony Award for “Urinetown (2001)

Beowilf Borittis the scenic designer. He won a Tony Award for Act One (2014) and he was nominated for a Tony Award for “Scottsboro Boys” (2011).

Philp Boykin was nominated for a Tony Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for “Porgy & Bess” (2012).

The Brooklyn Navy Yard comes alive at 6 a. m. A workman (Phillip Boykin) sings “I feel like I’m not out of bed yet”.

Three sailors come off the ship Gabey (Tony Yazbeck), Chip (Jay Armstrong Johnson) and Ozzie (Clyde Alves) singing “New York, New York”. They are on leave for 24 hours. Chip wants to see the sights his dad saw, the guide book is from 1934. He has the places he wants to see like the Bronx Zoo and Battery Park. Once on the subway Gabey spots a poster of Miss Turnstiles, Ivy Smith. He’s set on meeting her. The guys split up to try to find her. They are using the information in the poster to track her.

Chip gets picked up by a lady taxi driver. Hilday (Alysha Umphress) convinces him to come up to her apartment. Her roommate Lucy Schmeeler (Allison Guinn) is there.

Ozzie goes to the museum of Natural History thinking it was the museum of Natural History. He meets Claire DeLeone (Elizabeth Stanley). She invites him to her apartment only to find her fiance Pitkin (Michael Rupert) there. Claire tellsPitkin she will meet him later.

Both couple become very intimate.

Gabey in the meantime goes to Carnegie Hall. She is there getting singing lessons from her teacher Maude P Dilly (Jackie Hoffman). Ivy falls for Gabey and tells him she will meet him at Nathans, in Times Square at Midnight. She doesn’t show up.

To find out why and what happens later see the show.

The cast is great.

Jackie Hoffman has several roles each one is better than the next. She was hilarious.

Alysha Umphress is excellent as the sassy horny taxi driver.

Phillip Boykin plays several roles. He has such a beautiful voice.

Megan Fairchild movements are so graceful. She is a great dancer.

I liked the show but it did not feel right. The clothes were of the forty’s and the presentation was of New York of that time. Yet some of the actions were updated for modern times. For example the women were all over the sailors. It was obvious what their intentions were. The men came out in their under ware. I really can’t see it being performed this way in 1944.

The stage curtain is a huge American flag. They open with the national anthem. How touching especially Veterans Day is near.

It is a nice show to see.

Review by Rozanna Radakovich

Photos by Annazor.

To read a candid interview with the cast, scroll down to the left for recent photos. Click on recent photos for this and other shows.