Son of Adolph Green Traces ON THE TOWN's Journey to Broadway

Adam Green, son of award-winning writer Adolph Green, has partnered with Vanity Fair to offer an account on how Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden, and his father brought the beloved musical ON THE TOWN to Broadway seven decades ago in a new essay.

In the exclusive piece, Green shines a little light on his father's sprawling story of "long odds, lucky breaks, and leaps of faith that led to opening night."

Green begins:

"This year would have been my father's 100th birthday, and it would have made him indecently proud to see it marked by productions of so many of the musicals that he and his partner, Betty Comden, wrote in their 60-year collaboration: a stage adaptation of their 1953 MGM movie, The Band Wagon, as part of the Encores! series at New York's City Center; a live broadcast on NBC of their 1954 version of Peter Pan; the first Broadway revival of their 1978 screwball operetta, On the Twentieth Century. Most of all, though, he would have been thrilled to see the ebullient revival, also on Broadway, of On the Town, their 1944 musical, about the amorous exploits of three sailors on 24-hour shore leave in the big city, which introduced the phrase "New York, New York, a helluva town" into the American lexicon and announced the arrival of a new generation in the American musical theater."

For his entire piece for Vanity Fair, click here.

This fall, one of America's classic musical comedies is back on Broadway - On The Town, featuring Tony Yazbeck, Jay Armstrong Johnson and Clyde Alves. ON THE TOWN, the classic musical comedy love letter to New York City, will return to Broadway this fall in a critically acclaimed production directed by John Rando (Tony Award® for Urinetown) and choreographed byJoshua Bergasse. On The Town will open on Thursday, October 16, 2014 at Broadway's Lyric Theatre.

The cast of ON THE TOWN just reopened the Lyric Theatre with a special ribbon cutting ceremony on this afternoon, September 19th, along with producers Howard and Janet Kagan, in advance of the show's first preview performance tomorrow, September 20th. BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the special event below!

The Bronx is up, the Battery's down, and three sailors are hoping to get just a little bit lucky on their one day of leave in the Big Apple. From the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Coney Island to Times Square and Carnegie Hall, On The Town zigzags through New York City as the sailors and the three high-spirited young women they meet chase love, dreams, and each other during an unforgettable day in the city that never sleeps. The classic score features the standards "New York, New York," "I Can Cook Too," "Lonely Town," and "Some Other Time" and will be played in this production with their original orchestrations, performed by what will be the largest orchestra on Broadway, with 28 musicians led by musical director James Moore (Follies, Ragtime).