On the Town is a musical that opened on Broadway at the Adelphi Theatre on December 28, 1944, with music by Leonard Bernstein, book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, direction by George Abbott, and choreography by Jerome Robbins. It played a total of 462 performances, and has been revived on Broadway twice, in 1971 and 1998. The original production starred John Battles , Cris Alexander, Nancy Walker, Sono Osato, and Comden and Green.
Admired by many for its extensive use of dance in its storytelling (Robbins choreographed a number of ballets and extended dance sequences for the show, including the now-famous "Imaginary Coney Island" ballet), the story concerns three U.S. sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City. Each of the three sailors becomes enamored of a particular woman--and New York city itself--and has a number of adventures before their brief period of time ends and they must return to their ship to head off to war, and a very uncertain future.
The show was filmed in 1949, though many changes in script and score were made from the original stage version.
Musical numbers
- "New York, New York"
- "Come Up to My Place"
- "Carried Away"
- "Lonely Town"
- "Do Do Re Do" (Carnegie Hall Pavane)
- "I Can Cook, Too"
- "Lucky to Be Me"
- "Times Square: 1944" (Ballet)
- "Ya Got Me"
- "I Understand"
- "The Imaginary Coney Island" (Ballet)
- "Some Other Time"
- "The Real Coney Island" (Ballet)
External links
