On The Town is Fancy Free

When the American Ballet Theatre present Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free in their exclusive Brisbane season it will be the first time Australian audiences will have had the chance to see this iconic American work. Peter Pinne reports.

If the plot of Jerome Robbins Fancy Free sounds familiar, three sailors on 24-hour shore leave in New York City during the Second World War, it is. Most musical theatre affictionados know it as On the Town a 1944 Broadway musical and later a 1949 MGM movie starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin, Vera Allen, Betty Garrett and Ann Miller.

Fancy Free had its genesis in 1943 when Jerome Robbins, a dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, had an idea for a ballet about three sailors on shore leave. Leonard Bernstein was recommended to Robbins as a composer who could write jazz. Robbins contacted Bernstein and together they wrote the twenty-eight minute ballet Fancy Free. In a bar three sailors treat two girls to beer and entertain them with solo dances, fight over them, lose them, and pursue another girl.

The first performance of Fancy Free took place in the Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, with Bernstein conducting, on 18 April 1944. The ballet featured John Kriza, Harold Lang (later a Broadway star in Pal Joey), Jerome Robbins, Muriel Bentley, Janet Reed, Shirley Ecki and Rex Cooper. It was an immediate hit with the season being extended from seven performances to eighteen. It was taken on tour and danced 161 times during the season. At the time it was considered the finest ballet on an American theme, and it became a signature piece for the American Ballet Theatre.

Later productions were hailed by the New York Times as “A tremendous slice of dance theatre. One of the best loved ballets in the repertory, as joyous and perfect as ever,” whilst Clive Barnes in the New York Post said “It had spontaneity and joyousness that reflected in the Leonard Bernstein music and the totally exuberant choreography.”

Immediately following the success of the ballet, Oliver Smith, the designer for the ballet, suggested to Bernstein and Robbins that they do a full length musical. They seconded performers and revue writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green to write book and lyrics. Comden and Green expanded the Fancy Free plot, adding the “Miss Turnstiles” storyline, and in the process made sure they wrote two juicy parts for themselves.

The Theatre Guild was not interested in the project, so Smith and co-producer Paul Feigay took it to veteran director George Abbott who came on board. It was the first musical for Robbins who later went on to choreograph the groundbreaking West Side Story, Gypsy, and Fiddler On the Roof, amongst others. Bernstein also had a spectacular Broadway career with Wonderful Town, Candide, and West Side Story, whilst Comden and Green after a stint in Hollywood writing the legendary Singin’ In the Rain, returned to Broadway with Bells Are Ringing, On the Twentieth Century and later The Will Rogers Follies.

When On the Town opened at the Adelphi Theatre, New York, 28 December 1944, the critics were wildly ecstatic. “one of the freshest, liveliest, most engaging musicals in years” claimed Time, with the New York Times chiming in with “There can be no mistake about it: On the Town is the freshest and most engaging musical show to come this way since the golden days of Oklahoma!” It played for 463 performances.

The three sailors were John Battles as the love-sick Gabey, Cris Alexander as the more down-to-earth Chip, and Adolph Green as the clownish Ozzie. Japanese-American ballet star Sono Osato was “Miss Turnstiles,” the poster girl they spend the show looking for, with Nancy Walker as cab driver Hildy and Betty Comden as an anthropology student Claire de Loon. Hildy’s roommate Lucy Schmeeler, who continually had a cold and runny nose, was played by the wonderful Alice Pearce who repeated the role in the movie.

Sono Osato was well-known to Australian audiences having toured with the Ballets Russe in 1939 where she danced the lead role in the David Lichine ballet Protee. Also in the cast as the Master of Ceremonies was baritone Robert Chisholm, a frequent performer on Broadway, but better known for having starred opposite Gladys Moncrieff in six musical comedies in Australia including The Maid of the Mountains and Collits’ Inn.

Bernstein did not use any of his score for Fancy Free in creating On the Town which included two extensive ballet sequences, “Miss Turnstiles,” and “Gabey in the Playground of the Rich.” The most popular song to come out of the show was “New York, New York, it’s a helluva town,” with “I Can Cook Too” and “Come Up To My Place” taking the comedy honours, and “Lonely Town” and “Some Other Time” two memorable ballads.

Since its original production On the Town has been revived on Broadway twice, once at the Carnegie Hall playhouse in 1958-59, and once in 1971 in a production directed and choreographed by Ron Field. Ron Field was the director and choreographer then it first played London at the Prince of Wales Theatre, 30 May 1963, with a cast that included Don McKay (Gabey), Elliott Gould (Chip), Terry Kiser (Ozzie, Gillian Lewis (Claire), and Carol Arthur (Hildy).  

MGM acquired the rights to film the musical before the show opened on Broadway. A common practice later, it was the first time the film rights were sold before a show had premiered. Producer Arthur Freed considered Bernstein’s music a little too avant-garde and wanted music more accessible for the mass audience so he hired staff-composer Roger Edens to add to the score. Ultimately only four of Bernstein’s original pieces were retained: “I Feel Like I’m Not Out of Bed Yet,” “New York, New York,” “Come Up To My Place,” and the music for “Miss Turnstiles.” Edens’ contribution included, “Main Street,” “Pre-Historic Man,” “You’re Awful,” and “We’re Goin’ On the Town.”

The characters in the movie were changed somewhat to reflect the casting. Gene Kelly was Gabey, Frank Sinatra played Chip with Jules Munshin as Ozzie. All three had previously been successful as pals in Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949) for which Comden and Green had also written the screenplay. Vera Ellen was “Miss Turnstiles,” Betty Garrett the taxi-driver, with Ann Miller as Claire. The film, which was directed by Stanley Donen, was shot partly on location in New York, cost $2,111,250 and premiered at Radio City Music Hall on 30 December 1949. Comden and Green received their first Screenwriters Guild Award for the film. On the Town is regarded as a turning point in the history of Hollywood musical films. It was the first movie musical to be shot on location and the first to use contemporary rhythms.    

But while Australia will be seeing Fancy Free for the first time in the American Ballet Theatre’s exclusive Brisbane season 5-7 September, New York will be experiencing a revival of On the Town at the Lyric Theatre, formerly the Foxwoods Theatre and home of Spiderman – Turn Off the Dark for two and a bit years. It previews from 20 September and opens on 16 October 2014.

The production will feature Tony Yazbeck, Jay Armstrong Johnson, and Clyde Alves, as the show’s three leading sailors. All of them reprise the roles they played in last summer’s Barrington Stage production of the musical. Yazbeck continues his association with the musical which began when he played the character of Gabey in City Center’s Encores! presentation of the show in 2008.

American Ballet Theatre, Three Masterpieces: “Fancy Free,” “Bach Partita,” “Seven Sonatas” Lyric Theatre, QPAC, Brisbane, 5-7 September 2014.

Photographers: Rosalie O'Connor and Gene Schiavone

On The Town Revival - On Location in New York.

American Ballet Theatre