On the Town at the
Lyric Theatre
(L-R): Jay Armstrong Johnson, Tony Yazbeck, and Clyde Alves in On the Town.
The revival
of On the Town at the newly (and
elegantly) restored Lyric Theatre, put simply, is a triumph in every
sense. It runs like clockwork; but
clockwork is not powerful enough to describe the sheer spectacle of On the Town, so let us say this
production is an engine that runs on magic.
Leonard Bernstein, Adolph Green, and Betty Comden’s magnificent score
is, of course, robust as ever. The
performances, especially those of the three central characters, are
splendiferous. But perhaps most
important, the choreography, by Joshua Bergasse (Smash) in the style of Jerome Robbins, godfather of this musical,
flows like water across the Lyric’s expansive stage, filling the room with fire
and force, until it finally expels the audience into the streets after two and
a half glorious hours, singing and jigging as they go.
There can
be no doubt about it from the first moment those three voices cry “New York,
New York!”… Throughout the history of musical theater there has been no musical
quite like On the Town—its natural
friendliness to the audience, its somehow simultaneously innocent and
cosmopolitan tone, and its perfectly intertwined book, score, and dances. Based on Robbins’ 1944 ballet “Fancy Free,”
premiering that same year, and written when the creatives involved were,
respectively, 26, 27, and 30, its air of wartime patriotism and intrinsic sense
of joy have sustained its following seventy years after its premiere. I grew up on the movie, as, probably, many
others have, and though that 1949 Arthur Freed production included only three
songs from the original production, it shared with the musical the sweet
earnestness and hard-earned synchronicity that make them both so
impressive. Also, notably, they shared a
legitimate New York connection—Gene Kelly insisted that exterior shots be produced
on location in the city, at spots ranging from Rockefeller Center to the Museum
of Natural History. Significantly, that film cemented in the minds of the American public the
identities of the three sailors who come bounding down into the Brooklyn Navy
Yard at exactly 6 A.M.—Mr. Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and the underrated clown Jules
Munshin.
The cast of
the new On the Town may not supplant
them, but they may well equal them. Needless
to say, they are all fantastic singers, talented performers comic and tragic in
equal measure, and absolutely transcendant dancers. Ozzie is given fresh comic life by the
leering Clyde Alves, who brings to mind The
Mask-era Jim Carrey. Jay Armstrong
Johnson, who delivered a stunning performance in March’s Philharmonic staging
of Sweeney Todd, turns on a dime to capture Chip’s convulsing nervousness with aplomb. And Tony Yazbeck is marvelously expressive
and multitalented as the lovestruck Gabey.
But for certain dance moves which bear a winking resemblance to those of
Mr. Kelly, he proudly blazes his own trail through the part. He is just one of two actors this season who
seem to be making audience’s forget Gene Kelly’s name—Robert Fairchild, who is
to star in another Kelly role in An
American in Paris, inspired Alistair Macaulay to remark in the Times, “I prefer Mr. Fairchild.”
Speaking of
the illustrious Fairchilds, Robert’s wife, Megan Fairchild, a principal dancer
with the New York City Ballet, plays the most notable of the female
counterparts to those sailors on one day’s shore leave. In her Broadway debut as Miss Turnstiles Ivy
Smith, Ms. Fairchild not only brings to the show a dancing ability unmatched on
the Broadway stage in recent memory (certainly not by a lead) but also a
touching innocence as an actress and a voice rivalling that of any actress in
the production. Her presence onstage is
a delight.
The
supporting cast is marvelous, too—the illustrious Jackie Hoffman lays waste to
so many welcome comic characters you may wonder how she changes her costumes so
quickly, and Michael Rupert (the shark-ish law professor in Legally Blonde) tries a different sort
of role, the pushover Judge Pitkin, with pleasing results.
All in all
this cast, plus a score chock-full of too many hits to name, adds up to an
evening of pleasure the likes of which it’s hard to imagine anyone’s seen since
the time of the musical’s original run.
The singing of The Star-Spangled Banner before the curtain rises on the
first act is a nice touch—for when the curtain falls, you will never feel
prouder to live in a country where native hands have wrought such indelible
masterpieces.
