On the town
On The Town is the first musical by the American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein . The music is consistently composed in a classical jazzy style. The book and lyrics are by Betty Comden and Adolph Green .
It was based on the ballet Fancy Free by Jerome Robbins , performed in the same year , for which Bernstein had also composed the music.
The premiere took place on December 28, 1944 at the Adelphi Theater in New York and was shown there a total of 436 times. Directed by George Abbott , the choreography by Jerome Robbins; The main roles included the authors Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
In the historical context of the Second World War, Bernstein's work as a seaman's comedy was supposed to be easy to entertain and, thanks to the biting texts by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, it was supposed to contain the hotly debated topics of modern women in the 1940s and the sexual psychology of Sigmund Freud .
The first performance in London's West End took place on May 30, 1963 in the Prince of Wales Theater, the German-language premiere on September 9, 1977 in the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern . The translation into German for it came from Rolf Merz and Gerhard Hagen.
content
Three sailors want to use their 24-hour shore leave in New York to have fun - Gabey, Chip and Ozzie are on their tour of the city looking for women to spend the evening with. Gabey discovers a poster in the subway that shows "Miss Subway of June", the adorable girl is called Ivy Smith and is studying singing and painting. Gabey has no choice but to find this girl. At Times Square , the three friends separated, to search for the beautiful stranger.
Chip is "found" by the taxi driver Hildy, who tows the man in uniform to her apartment and cooks. The daredevil Ozzie is discovered in the natural history museum by the hypothermic anthropology student Claire as the archetype of the man who makes strings ring in her, as her boring fiancé, the noble judge Pitkin Brigework, never could. Meanwhile, Gabey, who chose Carnegie Hall as the starting point of his search, actually finds Ivy taking singing lessons from Madame Dilly. Ivy is immediately enthusiastic about the young man's recruitment, but has to earn the money for her singing lessons as a belly dancer. To save herself an embarrassing explanation, she snootily rejects Gabey.
When they meet again in Times Square, Chip and Ozzie present their ladies of love as Ivy doubles, but that too does not cheer up the disappointed Gabey. The subsequent night club tour, during which Gabey fell more and more into mourning, ends shortly before dawn on Coney Island, where Gabey recognizes his Ivy in a scantily clad dancer. Finally all couples are happily united, but then it is time to say goodbye at the pier. As our heroes board their ship, three new energetic sailors come storming down the pier for their 24-hour shore leave ...
filming
On The Town was made into a film by the MGM in 1949 ; The German title is Today we go for a stroll . Directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly , who also did the choreography and a leading role. Other leading roles include Frank Sinatra and Vera-Ellen . Most of the songs composed by Leonard Bernstein were replaced in the film by titles by Roger Edens and Lennie Hayton , who received the 1950 Oscar for the best score in a musical film (Best Music: Scoring of a Musical Picture).
"New York, New York"
On The Town is also known in Germany under the stage title New York, New York after the main song of the same name. However, this song is not the world hit Theme from New York, New York (also known as New York, New York ), which comes from Martin Scorsese's 1977 film New York, New York and by John Kander (music ) and Fred Ebb (text) was composed. The frequent mix-up of the two songs is due not least to the fact that Frank Sinatra sang the former in the film adaptation of On The Town and achieved one of his greatest successes with the latter in 1980. In a series of concerts in the early 1980s, Sinatra also combined both songs, first singing the opening lines of New York, New York , then transitioning to Theme from New York, New York .
To distinguish: The song from On The Town begins with the words "New York, New York, it's a helluva town / The Bronx is up and the Battery ’s down ...". For the film version, the word "helluva" was changed to "wonderful". In contrast, the first words of the Kander / Ebb title are: "Start spreadin 'the news, I'm leaving today / I want to be a part of it: New York, New York."
Web links
- On the town (Musical) in the Internet Broadway Data Base
- New York, New York - On the Town - on you tube
- "On the Town" on the Bernstein website