Broadway Theater Review: On the Town

Clyde Alves, Tony Yazbeck, Jay Armstrong Johnson. Photo: Joan Marcus

Ballet Gets a Big Night On the Town in Old Fashioned Revival

By Lauren Yarger
More than 30 actors and an unusually large orchestra bring back the first Leonard Bernstein music heard on Broadway in an old-fashioned revival that’s a sort-of love song to the place where the Bronx is up and the Battery’s down.

You might recognize those lyrics (and perhaps the whole thing thanks to the old film starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra). Yes, “New York, New York” is one of the tunes getting played by the 28-piece orchestra musically directed by James Moore. The original 1944 musical was based on an idea by Jerome Rpbbins, who had choreographed Bernstein’s tunes in a ballet called Fancy Free for the American Ballet Theater.

The book and lyrics are by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who gave us the screenplays for classics like “Singing in the Rain and “Good News” and the books for stage musicals Applause, Wonderful Town and On the Twentieth Century (which also will be revived this season on Broadway) among others.

And since its roots are in the ballet, this production features a lot of it. Far more than we usually get to see on a Broadway Stage. Joshua Bergasse, who choreographed the Barrington Stage revival which was the precursor for this Broadway revival, is making his Broadway debut. You might know his work from the TV show “Smash,” for which he won an Emmy.

Pulling the production together is excellent Director Jon Rando (A Christmas Story, Urinetown) on sets designed by Beowulf Boritt that use mirrored effect to let us see the choreography from all angles (and which make the 30-plus ensemble look even larger).

Now if you wonder why I have been talking about the creative part of the show instead of the show itself, there’s a reason. There’s not much of a plot. Three sailors on shore leave hope to find love (or at least some sex) during their night on the town. That’s about it. OK, I will fill in a few more details.

Chip (Jay Armstrong Johnson) has an old guide to the city and hopes to see some of the same sites his father told him about visiting a decade ago. He is disappointed to find many of them no longer exist, but ready-for-action cab driver Hildy (Alysha Umphress) adds her place to the itinerary and the two are soon taking a different kind of tour…

Ozzie (Clyde Alves) finds himself at the Museum of Natural History where anthropologist Claire de Loone (Elizabeth Stanley, whose high soprano is often hard to understand) finds him very much like the Neanderthals she is studying.  Because she’s also ready for action and eager to escape boring, but understanding Pitkin Bridgework (Michael Rupert), she is soon joining Ozzie for another kind of study about the development of man….

Meanwhile, the romantic adventures of Chip and Ozzie take them away for their real purpose that night: helping War hero buddy Gabey (Tony Yazbeck) track down June’s “Miss Turnstiles,” a.k.a. Ivy Smith (Megan Fairchild), whom Gabey fell in love with when he saw her face on a subway poster. Gabey manages to find Ivy on his own, however, but will their romance be thwarted by Maude P. Dilly (Jackie Hoffman)? The vocal teacher has been giving the suggestive dancer/wanna-be-actress vocal lessons and would rather the girl go to her dancing job wants the girl to go to work, rather than on a date with Gabey, so she can pay off her bill.

OK. I told you the plot was iffy….

There are some fun moments. The show opens with a rousing rendition of the National Anthem and the opening number features the delicious baritone of Phillip Boykin, who is totally underused in this production. Hoffman gets to play a number of comedic parts (much needed in this sleepy no plotter) and has them rolling in the aisles with her vocal warm-up. Fortunately Boritt gives the sets a sort of cartoonish feel so we never feel the show is taking itself too seriously. That’s good, especially when one of the dinosaurs at the museum starts to boogey….

All of the performances are good, but I kept thinking that if I had wanted to see ballet, I would have headed up to Lincoln Center (Fairchild, a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, makes her Broadway debut as Ivy). I’d rather hear that rare, large orchestra playing some tunes to which a full chorus could sing (most of the numbers are largely orchestral with little singing) and tap dance (though Bernstein’s tunes here don’t really lend themselves). It’s nice to look at, but didn’t engage me much, especially with premise that presents women mostly as mannequins, beauty contest contestants and willing objects of lust.

On the Town pirouettes at the Lyric Theatre, 213West 42nd St., NYC (kind of ironic that an old-fashioned musical replaces the high-flying, modern tech wonder Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark which previously ran in this large house, then known as the  Foxwoods Theater). http://www.onthetownbroadway.com.

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