December 28 marks the 75th anniversary of the opening of Broadway's On the Town, which sailed into Broadway's Adelphi Theatre in 1944. The musical, with a score by West Side Story composer Leonard Bernstein and a book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, concerns three sailors on shore leave in New York City during World War II who find romance and adventure while helping one of them track down the elusive Miss Turnstiles poster girl.
The musical was the source of now-classic songs such as "New York, New York," "Lonely Town," and "Some Other Time." Since its 1944 production, which closed on February 2, 1946 after 462 performances, On the Town has seen three Broadway revivals: a 1972 production, a 1998 production, a 2014 revival starring Tony Yazbeck, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Clyde Alves, Megan Fairchild, Elizabeth Stanley, Alysha Umphress, Michael Rupert, and Allison Guinn.
