No. 29. “New York, New York”
ON THE TOWN (1945). By Leonard Bernstein (music), Betty Comden & Adolph Green (lyrics and book). Based on an idea by Jerome Robbins.
NOTE: This is not the “Start spreading the news…” song. Kander and Ebb wrote that for a 1977 film, and it is most properly titled “Theme from New York, New York,” but no one calls it that. So we have two very famous songs with the same name.
ACUTALLY, ANOTHER NOTE: Since I’ve started this project, posts keep ending up seeming prophetic, or somehow aligned with current events. So I’ve planned on posting this song today for weeks, without clocking that it would follow what proved to be a historic election day. While I won’t take any credit for the timing, I certainly echo the sentiment that NYC sure is “a hell of a town” today!
Winter, 1945. You’re at a performance of On the Town. Perhaps you are familiar with the ballet Fancy Free which formed the basis of this musical. Perhaps you’re just aware of composer Leonard Bernstein and choreographer Jerome Robbins as prodigious rising talents. When the overture begins, you hear music that is both jazzy and elegant, much like the works of George Gershwin, but also wholly original. The lights rise on a dock in New York City in the early morning. Some laborers set the scene before a trio of protagonists enter (one of whom is played by the co-lyricist/librettist): three sailors who just disembarked for 24 hours leave. They sing with great excitement about this “helluva town” where they will spend the day (“New York, New York”).
In April 1944, choreographer Jerome Robbins and composer Leonard Bernstein—both in their mid-20s—debuted a ballet about sailors spending a day of leave in NYC called Fancy Free. The Notable Creatives I want to focus on here are three additions to the team who helped expand the short ballet into a full-fledged Broadway musical: director George Abbott and librettist/lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Comden and Green made their Broadway debuts with On the Townas both writers and performers. Their final Broadway show, Will Rodgers Folllies opened 47 years later, capping off a successful collaboration including musicals with Julie Styne and Cy Coleman, and the screenplay to Singing in the Rain. In the early 1940s, they had a nightclub act called The Revuers, and occasionally had musical help from Green’s onetime roommate: Leonard Bernstein. This wildly talented group of pals wrote a joyous, genre defying piece that fit perfectly in the rapidly evolving post-Oklahoma! landscape.
“Mr. Abbott,” was a remarkably industrious writer and director of Broadway musicals and comedies. By 1944 he was already well established as the director of many Rodger’s and Hart hits. He was the adult in the room—30 years older than the writers and producers—and his involvement lent credibility to expierimental work and helped the production secure the needed financing. His last Broadway credit as a director, a revival of his aptly named 1926 play, Broadway, opened on his 100th birthday. (It closed 2 days later—he lived for 8 more years).
Recommended Recording: ”New York, New York,” On the Town (2014 Broadway Cast)
Aside from its original Broadway production, On the Town has never really caught on with audiences like one might expect. Major Broadway revivals in 1971 and 1998 closed after brief disappointing runs and failed to produce cast recordings. This elegant 2014 revival wasn’t a smash hit, but it ran for nearly a year and produced the first and only comprehensive cast recording of an American production. It’s also one of the rare recordings that isolates the title song and doesn’t merge the song with other movements from the opening, or put it in some other medley. Even then, the piece is a a lot more expansive than its familiar chorus—there’s a lot of dancing going on.
Alternate Performances
On the Town haas received ~11 cast recordings, including an early truncated recording with members of original cast, a 1995 complete recording, and a 2019 Takarazuka recording1. It appears in numerous specials about New York City. It is often parodied, including a memorable episode of The Simpsons where Bart and Milhouse get a sugar high and sing “Springfield, Springfield.” When a sailor shows up and signs “New York, New York,” the kids redirect him “thattaway”
-1949 Film - MGM bought the film rights before the show even opened. The movie was a hit and starred Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin as the sailors. While Comden and Green adapted their libretto for screen, the movie is not a particularly faithful adaption, with most of Bernstein’s score being dismissed as “too challenging” for film audiences and replaced with new songs by Roger Edens.
-1960 Studio Cast - Because On the Town opened before cast recordings were commonplace, there was no real record of the score until Goddard Lieberson produced “the first full-length recording” in 1960. Bernstein himself conducted with Comden and Green reprising their roles.
-1992 Concert Cast - A 1992 concert, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, features a cast comprised of jazz, opera, and Broadway greats. A readily available album captures the concert. The concert was also taped and made available on VHS and Laserdisc(!), but has not made the leap to more modern formats.
Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?
The Rat Pack - Frank Sinatra starred in the 1949 film adaptation of On the Town. “New York, New York” was on of the few Bernstein songs to make it into the movie, allthough “It’s a hell of a town” became “It’s a wonderful town.”2 He’s more strongly associated with Kander and Ebb’s “Theme from New York, New York,” just in case having two songs with the same name isn’t confusing enough.
Audra McDonald performed “New York, New York” as part of the company for Leonard Bernstein’s New York, a 1997 TV special and album celebrating Bernstein’s 3 NYC-centric musicals. She also sings “A Little Bit in Love” from Wonderful Town and West Side Story’s “Tonight” as a duet with Mandy Patinkin.
Glee ends season two, episode 22 (“New York”) with the kids heading to the City that Never Sleeps for a competition. As they explore NYC in search of inspiration for a song, they sing a mash-up of Madonna’s “I Love New York” and On the Town’s “New York, New York.”
In the Wings
Song No. 30 will drop next week. Until then, I would recommend watching this 83 second video about Comden and Green that packs a lot if information into its merciful running time. It’s a promo for a 2020 concert that I did not see, but wish I had. I would also recommend watching this segment of a 1991 interview with George Abbott in which he discusses On the Town. The interviewer sounds like a Leslie Jordon character, and Abbott is literally 104. But thank goodness someone held onto that tape this long.
Catch up with all the songs to date!
Takarazuka is a Japanese theater company that presents musicals with all female casts.
Funnily enough, Bernstein, Comden and Green, and Abbot (and Robbins, in an uncredited capacity) would shortly thereafter collaborate on a musical about New York City called Wonderful Town.