On TheTown

On the Town is a smart, sharp, all-American musical comedy. That's no surprise. On the Town introduced theater audiences to composer Leonard Bernstein, choreographer Jerome Robbins, and lyricists/librettists Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who would make musical theater history for the next half century.

On the Town opened the 2008-2009 Encores! season at City Center. Directed by John Rando, this production retained the fun-filled, breezy freshness that originally struck gold. It is wartime and Tony Yazbeck (Gabey), Christian Borle (Ozzie), Justin Bohon (Chip) [pictured] play three sailors on 24-hour leave. They exude youthful exuberance, just off the ship docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and they are ready for "New York, New York," that helluva town.

For their adventure in the city that never sleeps, they need some companionship. In the subway, Gabey, falls for the photo of Miss Turnstiles, Ivy Smith (Jessica Lee Goldyn). His search for her sends the sailors through the city, to the Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Hall, Times Square, and Coney Island.. As Gabey hunts for Ivy, Chip meets cab driver, Hildy Esterhazy (Leslie Kritzer), and Ozzie takes off with conflicted anthropologist, Claire de Loon (Jessica Laura Thompson) who is engaged to the oddly understanding Judge Pitkin W. Bridgework (Michael Cumpsky).

The revue-style sketches speed ahead with driving music, witty repartee, and high-spirited, athletic ballet choreography creating a non-stop musical/comedy pastiche. Bernstein's melodies are rimmed with jazz, as electrifying as the city. When he slows down to a reflective ballad, the result is winsome as "Some Other Time," a resignation to farewell. "Lonely Town" gives Yazbeck a pensive moment to express his need for love. Yazbeck also sings the melodic "Lucky to Be Me." While his shipmates, Borle and Bohon, are undeniably appealing, Yazbek stands out in charisma and interpretation.

Kritzer's Hildy, the wise-cracking hack, is an engaging mix of toughness and sensuality. She enthusiastically raises the rafters with "I Can Cook Too." Thompson's Claire is part high society, part lusty lover. In a heated moment with Ozzie, she sings "(I Get) Carried Away." Pretty, talented and ambitious, Ivy expediently falls for Gabey just as quickly as he fell for her. Her voice teacher, zany Madame Maude P. Dilly (Andrea Martin), likes to nip more than a little. She yanks bottles out from every corner, including from between the legs of conductor Todd Ellison. She tears up the stage with her drunk shtick, and she does it riotously, using face, body and voice with outrageous elasticity.

Warren Carlyle designed fancy free dances based on the original Jerome Robbins style. Most notable is the show's hit song, "New York, New York," an aggressive and energetic portrayal of the city.

On the Town integrates story, song, and dance, but here the Encores! production falls short. The 30-piece orchestra sits center stage, leaving the characters to sing and act downstage, and dance on a raised platform set back upstage. The separated platform disconnects the dancers and weakens the music/book fusion. It fails to highlight the dancers in this dance-laden show.

The revival of On the Town is part of a citywide festival presented by the New York Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall honoring Leonard Bernstein who would have been 90 years old this year. Bernstein based the show on Fancy Free, a ballet he created with Jerome Robbins, and one that he always planned to expand into a theater musical with book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Sixty-five years later, On the Town remains a uniquely stylish and witty love story to New York.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
November 22, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org