It’s Time for ON THE TOWN!

Reviews from the Paper Mill Playhouse, New Jersey Production
November 2009

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: 11/19/09 by Terry Teachout
ON THE TOWN, the 1944 sailor-suit musical that made Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden and Adolph Green somewhat rich and very famous, is a masterpiece that has never gotten the respect it deserves. The original Broadway production was a hit…Now New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse has given us a production of ON THE TOWN staged by Bill Berry that gets everything right, all the way down to the last detail, and the results are lovely and amazing to behold.
In ON THE TOWN, set in wartime Manhattan, three sailors with a single day’s shore leave meet three pretty girls. High-speed high jinks ensue, interspersed with plenty of high-voltage singing and dancing. Needless to say, everyone is well and truly in love by the time the sailors return to their ship the next morning—but there’s a war on, and the three couples know that today’s happiness may become tomorrow’s heartbreak. In “Some Other Time,” the show’s most moving song, that awareness is made hauntingly explicit: There’s so much more embracing/Still to be done, but time is racing.
Paper Mill’s ON THE TOWN is better than any musical now playing on Broadway, South Pacific included. It belongs there. Failing that, it deserves to tour to every regional theater in America. Failing that, it deserves to run for a year in New Jersey. Don’t wait for any of these unlikely developments, though; catch the next train to Millburn and treat yourself to a night of bliss.

VARIETY: 11/17/09 by Robert Daniels
The Paper Mill Playhouse is back doing what it does best with ON THE TOWN, the balletic 1944 tuner about a trio of feisty sailors on 24-hour leave in New York. With an appealing cast directed by Bill Berry and choreographed by Patti Colombo, the Golden Age musical hums with bounding energy and soars with Leonard Bernstein’s exhilarating score.
Colombo has fueled the action with dizzying leaps and spins that frequently brought cheers from the opening-night audience. Betty Comden and Adolph Green fashioned a book with enough silliness to keep one giggling throughout and the sweet longing harbored in songs like “Some Other Time” and “Lucky to Be Me” still resonates with fervent romanticism.

THE STAR LEDGER: 11/19/09 by Anthony Venutolo
Never mind New York City. These days, it’s Millburn, New Jersey, that’s “a helluva town.” It will be for the next three weeks as ON THE TOWN enjoys a magnificent revival at the Paper Mill Playhouse. The show’s 28 exceedingly talented performers sing Leonard Bernstein’s music beautifully and deliver every one of the many jokes in Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s book and lyrics.
But the book offers a bittersweet message, too. Three sailors on shore leave in Manhattan are having a great day, but when their 24 hours are up, they’ll return to one harsh reality. It’s 1944, and they may well soon be fighting a war. So, while most of the dances are joyous affairs, one ballet includes moments that remind us that armed conflict is only an arm’s length away.

THEATERMANIA: 11/19/09 by Matt Windman
There are numerous reasons to celebrate Bill Berry’s joyous revival of ON THE TOWN, Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s 1944 musical about the romantic escapades of three sailors on 24-hour leave in New York during World War II, now playing at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse.
For starters, it features lavish production values, a lively, full-size orchestra playing the classic score, and a young, very appealing cast. But its biggest selling point is the innovative, sexy, and very physical choreography of Patti Colombo, who previously scored at Paper Mill with her show-stopping choreography of Kiss Me, Kate.
Colombo never misses an opportunity for dancing. When the male sailors jump off a loading dock and onto the streets of New York at the top of the musical, they are already doing back flips. In a reprise of the comedic song “Carried Away” at the Museum of Natural History, a group of cavemen unexpectedly join soon-to-be lovers Claire and Ozzie in an African stomp. But most striking of all is Columbo’s “Imaginary Coney Island” ballet, in which a subway opens up to reveal a colorful dreamscape covered in smoke, reminiscent of an MGM movie musical. At the same time, the staging never loses sight of the World War II time period.

CURTAIN UP: 11/19/09 by Simon Saltzman
Flash! If you are looking for the best musical comedy around, you might check out ON THE TOWN at the Paper Mill Playhouse. For the sheer number of belly laughs and for simply having a helluva good time, you can’t beat the jovial and rambunctious carrying on by the three sailors on a 24-hour shore leave.
Although the 1944 musical is primarily noted for the dancing, as originally conceived by Jerome Robbins and inspired by his “Fancy Free” ballet to a score by Leonard Bernstein, ON THE TOWN owes almost as much to the wacky book and wonderful lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
Because so many of the songs segue into a dance, we can only applaud the inventive rarely-pausing-for-breath choreography that serves as the pulse for the 17 scenes. Visually the show is stunning to look at thanks to the artistry of Walt Spangler whose settings look like a million bucks.
What a joy it is to hear again all the songs (too many were excised from the 1949 film starring Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly) written by Bernstein for the Broadway show and hear it played by the 17 musicians in the pit. This is the most rewarding and entertaining musical the Paper Mill has produced in a long time and should not be missed by anyone either in love or on 24-hour shore leave.