On the Town at the Lyric Theater

11/5 matinee
Got ticket w/ Today Tix app
Was incredibly easy. Entered in the morning on my phone. Found out I won at 10:00 am.
Found out I won in the middle of Talmud class. Was nervous that my ticket would be released because I couldn't whip out my credit card in class. Fortunately had time during the gap to fill it out.

Other people seated near me were also lottery winners. Spoke briefly with them. Talked to one about the "Encores" version of the show. Just mentioned to the other how easy and convenient the lottery was. Couple seated in row ahead of me were swigging cocktails and whispering to each other for part of the show. Person next to me covered his ears during every applause. Woman who I talked to about "Encores" got annoyed with the couple and moved during intermission. Unfortunately for her the Russians also moved during intermission and had even more to drink. Much of act 2 reeked of liquor.

The show itself:
Opened with singing of national anthem. Now when the culture does widespread salutes to the troops it's usually Pop and country stars. For some reason something as goofy and fun and lighthearted has come to be seen as having "higher" entertainment values when it really is a piece of pop culture. On the Town is an artifact in that sense. But still singing the national anthem with the orchestra and conductor in front of the big american flag was a nice way to begin and to remember that the salute the troops aspect does make the show more than just a fun romp.

Opening number kind of teasing show boat and old man River with black bass leading other workers in a morning work song. He sang wonderfully but already you know that the show will be a throwback to the past, without a lot of the racial and cultural sensitivities we hold these days.

New York, New York song was wonderful, classic tune, enthusiastic dancing, set a whimsical tone for the rest of the show.

Scenery was kind of ugly I thought. Projections were distracting. Didn't show the life of the city. Kind of felt like a rough draft.

Every single song had a dance encore. That was another way musical was old school. Dance encore for the scene at the museum pretty offensive in terms of costumes and noise. But that's how the creators wrote it and the cast was having fun. Great great stuff with the T. Rex sculpture also.

Alysha Umphress was great as Hildy. Funny, sang loud, full, and well. Conveyed the attitude. I also like Claire DeLoon (Elizabeth Stanley) even though the character is perhaps less memorable than Hildy. Lovely singing, especially of "some other time" at the end of the show. The quartet parts in particular were just gorgeous.

Jackie Hoffman was hilarious and knew it, milking every laugh, and the audience was happy to oblige. A memorable one-off line was when she woke up from a drunken stupor saying, "it wasn't an orgy, it was a naked bar mitzvah!" I loled.

Other just wonderful musical numbers were Gabey's two songs. The first one, lonely town, was so soulful, was interrupted by a dance, and ended with a chorale of singers joining tony Yazbeck. His other song, lucky to be me, is a great standard that I recognized from many a New Year's Eve party. The cast gave it such joy.

But let's talk about the number one piece of the show: the dancing! Everyone had to do it, even Jackie Hoffman. But the real dancing star is of course Megan Fairchild from the NYCB who just rocked it at Ivy Smith. The act one piece was sheer delight and the act two pas de deux with Yazbeck, just wow. So beautiful and expressive. You see it all the time at Lincoln Center, but less and less on Broadway itself. There was plenty of "look at me" dancing too, but Fairchild and Yazbeck brought so much more than that.

About the orchestra: I love that the conductor played along with rogue cast members and dinosaurs but I didn't love that the biggest orchestra on Broadway still had to have amplification. It really took away from the richness of Bernstein's score. Maybe because I've spent so much time at the opera, ballet, and orchestra (including listening to Bernstein scores like Fancy Free) perhaps I have less patience for the tinny sound of an amplified orchestra.

Because it really is meant to just be a fun show (while still taking care to honor the troops; act two opened by singing happy birthday to a real life navy vet in the audience) I don't want to get into the racial and gender politics too much. But let's just say there's a lot going on here. Hildy and Claire are certainly women who take charge and get what they want sexually and are NOT labeled sluts for it, not even by Claire's fiancé, who ends up with another woman at the end in a nice, almost Shakespearean twist. Ivy, apart from her dancing, isn't much of a character and the only reason she is desirable is because of her looks. The "Gabey's Comin'" number, when the sailors manipulated the female chorus members like mannequins (as merely objects) indicates the production's sometimes retro gender politics. A couple uncomfortable cultural things too: the scene at the museum and the whole Rajah scene at the end. These are minor gripes and again, hearken back to the time of the show, but maybe an updated production could have been more creative in its choices for staging and for costumes especially.

Overall though, a really fun theater experience, with some lovely singing performances, and even more memorable dancing.