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‘Wonderful Town’ Moves From Broadway to Carlsen CenterPrint OptionsMore InformationRelated Information |
‘Wonderful Town’ Moves From Broadway to Carlsen Center
Johnson County Community College
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The city lights. The humming traffic. The bustling crowds. There is nothing like the first time you land in New York City. Experience that thrill all over again in Wonderful Town, the New York City Musical, part of a new national tour, at 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Jan. 26-27, in Yardley Hall of the Carlsen Center, Johnson County Community College. Paul Laird, University of Kansas musicologist, will present Artist Insights at 7 p.m. both nights.
Wonderful Town is the delightful tale of sisters Ruth and Eileen. They’re fresh off the bus from Ohio, ready to follow their dreams, fall in love and take New York by storm. With a delightful score by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden, this all new production features the Broadway costumes, orchestrations and Tony Award-winning choreography of the 2003 Broadway revival.
Based on the play My Sister Eileen, Wonderful Town opened on Broadway in 1953 and was an instant hit, winning five Tony Awards. The 2003 Broadway production marked the show’s revival, which opened to rave reviews. Wonderful Town boasts the songs Ohio, Conga, 100 Easy Ways to Lose a Man and A Little Bit in Love.
The adventures of the two sisters were based on true-life experiences that occurred to Ruth and Eileen McKenney who moved to Greenwich Village in 1933 in search of careers and romance. Ruth McKenney was a hopeful newspaper and magazine writer when she began to write a series of autobiographical short stories that were published in the New Yorker and later put together into a popular book, My Sister Eileen.
In 1940 the book was turned into a hit Broadway play, bearing the book’s name. In 1953 Fields and Chodorov adapted their successful play into the Broadway musical, Wonderful Town, calling upon Bernstein, Comden and Green to write the score in five weeks. Writing fast was no problem for the trio, who were old friends and had written the popular musical On the Town. (Comden’s death on Nov. 23, 2006, at the age of 89 made recent headlines.)
Hollywood movie star Rosalind Russell played Ruth, a part she had played earlier in the 1942-movie version of the play. Edie Adams played Eileen. Wonderful Town ran for 559 performances and won the N.Y. Drama Critics’ Circle Award and the Tony Award for Best Musical of the 1952-53 season.
Fifty years later, Wonderful Town is still a good place to be. The revival received three Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Revival of a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical (Donna Murphy) and Best Choreography (Kathleen Marshall). The score is ageless; the lyrics still witty.
Wonderful Town tickets are $50 and $40, available by calling the Carlsen Center box office, 913-469-4445, or online at www.jccc.edu/CarlsenCenter.
