On the Town Director’s Note
On the Town follows three college-age sailors: Gabey from Kansas, Chip from Illinois, and Ozzie from Pennsylvania. It’s June 1944, and these three Naval buddies bonded after Gabey saved Chip and Ozzie from drowning at sea. Now, they have 24 hours of shore leave in New York City to celebrate. They have big expectations--seeing all the famous sites, hitting some hot nightclubs, and meeting women. However, not one character ends up having the day that they expected! Expectation versus reality is a central theme that pops up repeatedly in this show. In 1944, the world is still at war and after the sailors step back onto their ship, the future for everyone is anything but certain.
New York City and its people are the backdrop of this musical. We see many types of people and workers as the sailors move through the day. In 1944, New York was in its first boom since the Depression. Women held one-third of all manufacturing jobs. And, with money in people’s pockets, nightclubs, restaurants, and Broadway theaters soared again. Over 86,000 women were serving in the Navy as WAVES during WWII. The three prominent women we meet represent women of the city. Hildy is a blue-collar taxi driver who has many hidden talents. Claire is an anthropologist about to complete her first book. Ivy is a young dancer from Ohio training to become a well-rounded artist. As each unexpected couple forms, time becomes a disappointing reality that each couple must face.
Fleet Week celebrates the troops and builds goodwill between the military and civilians. As the sailors land on shore, they impact the city, and since this is the first time in a while that they have been outside of their ship, shenanigans are bound to occur. “The Fleet’s In” is a 1934 painting by Paul Cadmus that depicts the infamous debauchery of sailors. This controversial painting inspired Jerome Robbins to create his first ballet, Fancy Free, a decade later. His ballet soon became the musical you are about to see today, with the help of the comedy writing duo Betty Comden and Adolph Green and young composer Leonard Bernstein. The art of Cadmus, too, plays with expectation versus reality. If you look at the painting on our main curtain or show poster long enough, you’ll start to see a harsh reality of the people depicted. There are drunk sailors, sex workers, pansies, and upper-class New Yorkers, all mingling together on the littered and graffitied streets of New York. You’ll find realistic or amplified curves and rolls on each person. The proportions of each figure's hand, face, arm, leg, or buttocks accentuate a brashness reflected in On the Town. Our production also lacks a flashy, musical theatre comedy polish, using the work of Cadmus as continued inspiration. We are peering under the bridge at the people who inhabited this town in 1944.
Today’s production of On the Town is the same script you may have seen onstage before. However, the casting or representation of characters is meant to reflect the students in our department. New York has always been home to people from all over the world searching for a new start, a new family, or a “harbor light” that leads to a connection with other people who see them. A final message from this show that resonates with me is: embrace those around you and make the most out of these 24 hours we have been given. “Unless there’s love, the world’s an empty place,” so I ask that you let your expectations today be shaped by the love you witness in all its many forms.
- J. Austin Eyer (Director)
