Review of Broadway Musical 'On The Town'

The 1944 musical "On The Town" is back on Broadway.

The musical is based off of Jerome Robbins's ballet 'Fancy Free,' and depicts a the antics of three navy soldiers on their 24 hour shore leave in New York City.

The musical was been brought back in October 2014 and continues it's reign on the Broadway stage.

The plot of the play is relatively simple: three sailors, Gabey (Tony Yazbeck,) Chip (Jay Armstrong Johnson,) and Ozzie(Clyde Alves), get to roam the streets of New York for 24 hours starting at 6am. Each of the three has a very different goal in mind for the trip but all plans are discontinued when Gabey falls for a picture of Miss.

Turnstiles, Ivy Smith (Megan Fairchild). In order to cover more ground in the little time they have, the three split up. Ozzie and Chip get distracted from their search by Claire de Loone (Elizabeth Stanley) and Hildy (Alysha Umphress).

For the first few songs, the forties were very apparent. Initially, it made the musical less enjoyable and mostly uncomfortable. For example, when Ozzie first runs into Claire she's interested in him in a scientific way but he keeps making passes at him that should have gotten him slapped, not kissed.

Claire's character is studying men scientifically so she doesn't study them physically.

It's probably not a big thing but it just gives a pass to old thoughts that are no longer prevalent. As it goes on and the storylines are fleshed out those aspects are removed, making it more enjoyable.

The musical numbers are quite fun. There are a few that were long and really slow enough that eyelids began to drop. The first number "I Feel Like I'm Not Out of Bed Yet" is sung by a wonderful vocalist with a low rich voice.

By far the most beautiful intro to a musical, plus it's about that everyday struggle of not wanting to leave your bed to go into work.

The whole musical is very dance heavy, so any fans of dance this is the one for you.

"On the Town" is Fairchild's debut on Broadway and while her singing numbers are limited her dancing is top notch. As it should be considering she's a principle dancer for New York Ballet.

Fairchild has a few big dance numbers that she shines in so much that her every movement will have you captured.

The only thing about some of the bigger group numbers it seemed like dancers were off.

Not in a 'this is intentional' way because it just made those moments seem like a big mess rather than a well oiled dance number.

All around "On The Town" was quite enjoyable. The beginning was slow and so overtly drenched in the forties that it was to the point of eye rolling.

However, every new character and situation that's introduced proves to heighten the comedic aspect of the musical.

Especially, any role Jackie Hoffman played which were by far the funniest and most enjoyable characters. ''On The Town'' is still on Broadway and it'll be there for a while.