2008 Woodie Awards
Reviewing the classics:
On The Town
Alicia Zanetta
Issue date: 2/8/06 Section: Entertainment
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Garrett and Sinatra play just two of the charming characters in the humorous musical about an "awfully" exciting town, New York.
Gene Kelly, Ann Miller, Vera Ellen and Jules Munshin join Sinatra and Garrett in a classy performance that centers around three sailors who only have a short leave from their ship, providing them merely a twenty four hour window of opportunity to take in every tourist attraction and pretty dame they can.
Kelly, Sinatra and Munshin turn the city upside down when they begin their trip by seeing the sites and end up going on the town.
While on the subway the three sailors, Gabey (Kelly) in particular, is fascinated by the poster of "Miss Turnstiles," Ivy Smith (Ellen), and quickly falls for her, thus becoming obsessed with finding her among the four million New Yorkers.
Determined to help their friend, Chip (Sinatra) and Ozzie (Munshin) decide to go to all the locations listed under Ivy's picture as her favorite places to go throughout the city, by looking them up in Chip's guide book.
Along the way, the three sailors end up meeting a gorgeous lady cab driver, Hilde (Garrett), and a man-crazy anthropology student, Claire (Miller), who distract Chip and Ozzie with pangs of love and cozy apartments. The other four vow to aide Gabey in his search for "Miss Turnstiles" by splitting up, and of course pairing up with their new gals, claiming to cover more ground by going to three different places, instead of one.
Romantic antics and hilarious chaos ensues as Gabey goes off by himself to look for Ivy while Chip, Hilde, Ozzie and Claire get lost in each others charms. What began as a simple day in New York soon turns into a mischievous night out and the realization of the glamorous Ivy Smith's true identity.
On the Town first came to Broadway in 1944 and was brought to Hollywood by the masterful direction of Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly.
The play was written by Adolph Green and adapted to a musical by Betty Comden. "Prehistoric Man," "The Bronx is Up" and "The Battery's Down," "Main Street," "You're Awful" and of course, "On the Town," are just some of the many great numbers performed by the stellar cast of On the Town.
The play's original music was created by Saul Chaplin, the non-original scores by Leonard Bernstein and any additional songs by Roger Edens.