[1] Battles's breakout role and career highlight came in 1944 as Gabey in the original Broadway production of the hit musical comedy On the Town.

Battles played the Yokel Sailor and understudied one of the male leads before resigning from the production when he was offered the role of Gabey in On the Town.

[7] Battles stayed with the production for the entirety of the run,[8] missing two periods due to illness and vacation break when understudy Marten Sameth stepped into his role.

[11] In addition to giving Battles his career making role, On the Town was the first Broadway success for a quartet of American theater legends: composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, choreographer Jerome Robbins, and actors and book and lyric writers Adolph Green and Betty Comden.

[14] Occupying the middle ground between the extremes was Burton Rascoe of the New York World Telegram who offered merely that "if you are not too exacting it is pretty good fun".

[15] Battles's role as Gabey put him at the heart of the matter in On the Town as one of the trio of sailors the show follows over a 24-hour period of leave in New York City.

Rodgers and Hammerstein had already between them nearly six glory-filled decades of Broadway triumph and in their first collaboration, Oklahoma!, created an enormous hit (even at that moment in the midst of a stunning performance run of 2,212 shows)[19] that was to become a staple of the American musical theater stage.

Agnes de Mille, niece of Hollywood film producing and directing titan Cecil B. DeMille, was on board as director in addition to her accustomed role as choreographer.

Several critics likened the unpretentious tale of this musical play to Thornton Wilder's iconic drama of everyday small-town American life Our Town.

[26] Ward Morehouse, writing in The Sun, called it a "musical play of beauty and dignity" and ranked it alongside Rodgers and Hammerstein's masterworks Oklahoma!

[27] Even the New York newspaper PM's severely disappointed Louis Kronenberger allowed that Battles was a likable Joe Taylor.

[30] The end of the nine-month run of Allegro marked a five-year-long period of heavy activity on Broadway for Battles and at this point he took a break from performing on its stages to pursue acting opportunities abroad.

[32] The Gate Theatre was formed in Dublin in 1928 by the Irish actors and theatrical producing team of Hilton Edwards and Michael MacLiammoir, also a playwright.

Battles called the Gate one of the finest repertory companies in the world and expressed his regard for Edwards and MacLiammoir as great teachers.

It was a world premiere by a non-Irish playwright, at the time something of a novelty in Ireland, and the play was perceived to portray the unprecedented abdication in 1936 of England's King Edward VIII, this still quite fresh in people's minds.

Lowe-Porter, known widely then as the authorized English translator for famed German writer Thomas Mann, was quoted at the time saying that "the parallel between this chronicle play and the facts of Edward VIII's abdication are incidental".

[37] It is worth noting that Porter-Lowe was reported at the time as being a close friend of the Duchess of Windsor - the former Wallis Simpson and the very woman at the center of King Edward's abdication.

This second show, The Mountains Look Different, received its world premiere at the Gaiety on October 25, 1948, and ran for the two-week remainder of the Gate's six-week home season in Dublin.

Immediately following, Battles and company moved to the Citizens Theatre of Glasgow, where the Gate began a four-week Scottish season.

The Mountains Look Different centers on a young Irish woman, played in this production by British stage and screen veteran Sheila Burrell, trying to leave behind a past that includes a turn as a prostitute in London.

Several in-theater disruptions of the show were reported, letters to the editor in newspapers voiced indignant disgust, and professional reviewers variously dismissed the play as "a sordid and unpleasant piece",[40] and effort expended "on a subject that proves nothing, teaches nothing and is scarcely palatable entertainment".

The Standard's Fallon noted his performance as outstanding;[43] the Evening Herald critic lauded him for compelling playing;[46] the Irish Times writer chimed in, stating that "John Battles produced some impressively tragic miming".

The Sunday Times critic assessed the show as "equally compounded of period dresses, romantic cliches, and vulgarity", while suggesting that it would be immensely popular.

Other notables partaking included Mary Martin, Helen Hayes, Alfred Drake, John Raitt, Elaine Stritch, and Hammerstein's long-time composing partner, Richard Rodgers.

In letters to Bernstein dating from early February 1945, Battles wrote of his love for the budding maestro and of the lingering sensations of their sexual encounters.