Theatre Register
On the Town (New Broadway Cast Recording)

On the Town

Shows · On the Town

On the Town is a musical with music by Leonard Bernstein and book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, based on Jerome Robbins' idea for his 1944 ballet Fancy Free, which he had set to Bernstein's music. The musical introduced several popular and classic songs, among them "New York, New York", "Lonely Town", "I Can Cook, Too", and "Some Other Time".

Opened
1944
Performances
463
Type
Musical
Era
Golden Age
Music: Leonard BernsteinLyrics: Betty Comden & Adolph GreenBook: Betty Comden & Adolph Green

Productions5 on Broadway

1944 Adelphi Theatre Original. December 28, 1944 · George Abbott 463 performances
1963 Prince of Wales Theatre Transfer. May 30, 1963
1971 Imperial Theatre Revival. October 31, 1971 · Ron Field 73 performances
1998 Gershwin Theatre Revival. November 19, 1998 · George C. Wolfe 69 performances
2014 Lyric Theatre Revival. October 16, 2014 · John Rando 368 performances

Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.

Licensing 1 entry

US Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark available

Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.

In the literature10 passages

Broadway audiences were On the Town at the Adelphi Theatre in New York—by today’s standards, an absolutely remarkable achievement. book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p247

On the Town was nearly the perfect show for its time and place. New York City experienced a constant flow of soldiers and sailors on leave, and the public knew of Fancy Free’s riotous success. book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p291

Abbott, Robbins, and Nancy Walker of ON THE TOWN [Decem- ber 28, 1944] reunited for this comic dance musical. book:show-tunes-1905-1985-the-songs-shows-and-careers-of-steven-suskin-1st-ed-new-yor#p374

As wit ON THE TOWN, WEST SIDE STORY was centered on ballet; but not for musical comedy purposes. book:show-tunes-1905-1985-the-songs-shows-and-careers-of-steven-suskin-1st-ed-new-yor#p387

Five were Broadway shows: On the Town (1944), JVondeiful Town (1953), Candide (1956), West Side Story (1957), and /600 Pennsylvania Avenue ( 1976). Yet his first success as a composer for the stage was with a jazz-style ballet, Fancy Free (1944), written for choreographer Jerome Robbins and premiered by the Ballet Thea… book:showtime-a-history-of-the-broadway-musical-theatre-larry-stempel#p431

George Abbott, Jerry Robbins, and Nancy Walker of ON THE TOWN [Bernstein: December 28, 1944] reunited for this comical ballet musical about a brewer’s daughter bankrolling the ballet in order to get on her toes. book:show-tunes-the-songs-shows-and-careers-of-broadway-s-suskin-steven-suskin-steven#p234

Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

Something wrong here? Correct a field or report the problem. Every change is recorded in public under the contributor licence.