If you were going out of your way to find something wrong with this revival of On the Town, I guess you could say that the intertitles, displayed on a scrolling LED sign, are a little distracting and annoying. And you could get into a little back-and-forth over the decision to plunk the orchestra down in the middle of the stage, slicing the dances into twin tableaux fore and aft. But honestly? On a day when the Dow falls seven or eight thousand points, when New York seems not so much lovably quirky as it does horribly risky, anyone who gets pleasure out of musical theater cannot reasonably ask for more than this. What you've got is a crisply directed orchestra smoothly handling a great Leonard Bernstein score; strong singers and dancers in even the minor roles, with several original Jerome Robbins dances on view; a very good Hildy (Leslie Kritzer) and a great Ivy (Jessica Lee Goldyn). There may be no better way to remind yourself why you bother with New York, New York, a helluva town.

On the Town
Encores! Series, City Center
Through November 23

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• Archive: “Theater Reviews”
• Articles by Christopher Bonanos