On The Town

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Musical from 20 April to 25 May 2007

London Coliseum St Martins Lane, London

English National Opera's Olivier Award-nominated production of On the Town returns to The London Coliseum for 20 performances only with a huge cast, chorus and orchestra of 105 - following its smash-hit Olivier Award-nominated season in March 2005.

On The Town - the original 'New York, New York' musical

On The Town has music by Leonard Bernstein, book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and is based on an idea by Jerome Robbins. This production is directed by Jude Kelly and features choreography by Stephen Mear and designs by Robert Jones. The orchestra is conducted by Simon Lee.

"A brilliant production" The Financial Times

On The Town was written in 1944 as an expansion of Leonard Bernstein's jazzy ballet score Fancy Free which he wrote for Jerome Robbins. The story concerns three sailors who are on 24-hour shore leave in New York City and the women they meet along the way. It was famously filmed by MGM film starring Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly.

"The music is out of this world. Under the baton of Simon Lee, the orchestra are electrifying"
The Independent

The cast for this production of On The Town in London features Caroline O'Connor as 'Hildy Esterhazy', Helen Anker as 'Ivy Smith', Lucy Schaufer as 'Claire de Loone', Janine Duvitski as 'Lucy Schmeeler', Alison Jiear as 'Dolores Dolores' and Rodney Clarke as 'Master of Ceremonies', who all reprise their roles from the 2005 staging.

"Jude Kelly's hugely successful staging of Bernstein's musical is a great and joyous ensemble show" The Sunday Times

"On The Town, Bernstein's 1944 valentine to the Big Apple, is a magnificently ambitious work. Like the sprawling place if reflects, it is swaggering, edgy, rowdy, melancholic, sleazy and sexy, but above all it's exhilarating. As the song goes, New York is 'a helluva town' and this is a helluva score. In Jude Kelly's hugely enjoyable revival at the vast Coliseum, thanks to a full orchestra, you hear it in all its glory." The Mail on Sunday

"A wonderful evening's entertainment. Energy levels soar among the 100-strong company, production values are high and Robert Jones's costumes and designs look great"
The London Evening Standard

"The multi-talented Jude Kelly turns Leonard Bernstein's second-rank musical On the Town into a helluva hit for English National Opera. It may be more ballet than musical; it may be a one-song show; and it may have purists tut-tutting about a state-subsidised opera house mounting an amplified musical. But the first-night audience went wild, suggesting it will pack 'em in on the scale ENO so desperately needs." The Observer

"By the end, I was delighted to have seen this crowd-pulling revival. I did miss Gene Kelly's zingy tap routines and found the long balletic fantasias, choreographed by Stephen Mear, rather a drag... However, they are in the spirit of Jerome Robbins' original sequences and Mear's jazzier, swirling crowd scenes are slick. Seeing On the Town at the ENO also makes one far more appreciative of Bernstein's great category-defying blend of popular and classical harmonies and, indeed, to the teasing, mock-operatic elements in this score." The Independent on Sunday

"I am sure that ENO will fill the Coliseum for their performances of its production of On The Town, the Bernstein musical about three sailors on shore leave in New York in 1944. Produced with immense zest by Jude Kelly and choreographed snazzily by Stephen Mear, it makes for an enjoyable evening." The Sunday Telegraph