The story concerns three American sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City in 1944, during World War II.

They convinced Robbins and Bernstein, who in turn wanted their friends Comden and Green to write the book and lyrics.

[1] On the Town premiered on Broadway at the Adelphi Theater on December 28, 1944, directed by George Abbott and with choreography by Jerome Robbins.

The production starred John Battles (Gabey, who replaced Kirk Douglas before tryouts), Cris Alexander (Chip), Nancy Walker (Hildy), Sono Osato (Ivy), Betty Comden (Claire), and Adolph Green (Ozzie).

The Japanese-American dancer Sono Osato starred as Ivy; there were six African-Americans in the cast, who were treated as part of the citizenry; and nine months into the run, the black conductor Everett Lee took over the podium.

In his review for the New York Times, Clive Barnes wrote:[4] the book and lyrics...have ease and a decent few laughs...The music...has worn less well, too many of the nostalgic ballads sound like sub-Puccini filtered through Glenn Miller...Mr. Field has staged the musical numbers with zest and imagination, but, with respect, he is no great shakes as a choreographer...Where Mr. Field is most successful is in the performances of his six principals, and the women are markedly better than the men.

Best of all is Bernadette Peters as the Bronx nasal taxi driver...Phyllis Newman as Claire also danced and sang with just the right style and gusto.

Donna McKechnie made a sweet and talented Ivy Smith.The second Broadway revival opened at the Gershwin Theatre on November 19, 1998, and ran for 69 performances.

[5] Lea Delaria's performance as Hildy the taxi driver (and especially her all-stops-out rendition of "I Can Cook, Too") won wide praise, with Ben Brantley writing "Working through the saucy double-entendres and scat embellishments of I Can Cook Too, Hildy's mating call of a solo, Ms. DeLaria makes an obliging captive of anyone watching her.

A Broadway revival opened at the Lyric Theatre on September 20, 2014, in previews, and officially on October 16, directed by John Rando with choreography by Joshua Bergasse.

[6] The cast featured Jay Armstrong Johnson (Chip), Tony Yazbeck (Gabey) and Clyde Alves (Ozzie),[7] and Megan Fairchild (Ivy), Alysha Umphress (Hildy), and Elizabeth Stanley (Claire) as the three women in the sailors' lives, as well as Jackie Hoffman (Madame Dilly), Michael Rupert (Judge Pitkin), and Allison Guinn (Lucy Schmeeler).

John Rando was the director, Warren Carlyle the choreographer, with a cast that featured Justin Bohon (Chip), Christian Borle (Ozzie), Tony Yazbeck (Gabey), Jessica Lee Goldyn (Ivy), Leslie Kritzer (Hildy Esterhazy), Jennifer Laura Thompson (Claire De Loone), and Andrea Martin (Madame P.

There are several ballet sequences, instant reprises, jazzy pop songs, classical spoofs, and soaring ballads.

The production starred Tony Yazbeck (Gabey), Clyde Alves (Ozzie), Jay Armstrong Johnson (Chip), Alysha Umphress (Hildy), Deanna Doyle (Ivy), Elizabeth Stanley (Claire), Michael Rupert (Judge Pitkin), Allison Guinn (Lucy Schmeeler), and Nancy Opel (Madame P. Dilly).

In his review Ben Brantley wrote: "John Rando's production of On The Town, the 1944 musical about three sailors on shore leave in New York City, is one of those rare revivals that remind us what a hit show from long was originally all about.

The main female roles were taken by two Americans, Carol Arthur and Andrea Jaffe, and an English actress, Gillian Lewis.

A month earlier, Bock and Harnick's She Loves Me had opened on Broadway and ran for some 300 performances, but flopped when it came to London in 1964, not least because people thought the title had something to do with the Beatles.

[13] In 1992, Michael Tilson Thomas led the London Symphony Orchestra and an all-star, crossover cast of opera and theater performers in a semi-staged concert version produced by Deutsche Grammophon and recorded for both CD and video release.

Participants included Frederica von Stade, Thomas Hampson, Tyne Daly, Cleo Laine, David Garrison, Samuel Ramey, and, as both narrators and performers, Comden and Green themselves.

On The Town was part of English National Opera's repertoire, running April 20 – May 25, 2007, at the London Coliseum, with Caroline O'Connor as Hildy, with choreography by Stephen Mear.

[17] A semi-staged concert version was performed at the Royal Albert Hall, London, as part of the 2018 Proms, on 25 August, the exact centenary of Bernstein's birth.

It starred Gene Kelly as Gabey (who also co-directed with Stanley Donen), Frank Sinatra as Chip, and Jules Munshin as Ozzie, as well as Ann Miller (Claire), Vera-Ellen (Ivy) and Betty Garrett (Hildy).

Chip is excited to see all the sights that his father told him about after his trip to New York in 1934, with his decade-old guidebook by his side.

Gabey wants to meet Ivy Smith, despite Chip's protests that the city is too big for things like that to happen.

The three break up, Gabey to Carnegie Hall, Ozzie to the Museum of Modern Art, and Chip to the "subway people."

A young female cabbie named Hildy is found asleep in her cab by her irate boss S. Uperman.

Waldo Figment, the professor who built the dinosaur, joins Uperman, the cop, and the lady in the chase.

At Carnegie Hall, Ivy Smith is taking lessons from Madame Dilly, a drunk who clearly does not know vocal training.

He decides that he has tried hard enough, and he and Hildy attempt to get physical when her roommate, Lucy Schmeeler, home from work with a cold, intrudes.

An extended dance sequence occurs with Ivy and a dream Gabey in a boxing match ("Subway Ride/The Great Lover Displays Himself/The Imaginary Coney Island").