Winner of five Tony Awards including Best Musical, *Wonderful Town* tells the story of two sisters in 1935 who move from Ohio to Greenwich Village to pursue their artistic dreams and maybe find love along the way. Ruth, an aspiring writer, and Eileen, an aspiring actress, encounter an assortment of colorful characters as they strive and sing to delightful tunes by the great Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by legendary musical-comedy duo Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
Zhailon Levingston (Cats: “*The Jellicle Ball*”) directs this celebration of New York City as a magnet for people from all over who come here to fulfill their aspirations. Led by Mary-Mitchell Campbell, the 28-piece Encores! Orchestra brings the beloved Golden Age sound—featuring marvellous songs like “Ohio” and “One Hundred Easy Ways”—back to life at City Center.
The Encores! encore that opened on Wednesday at City Center — just the third time in 31 seasons that this invaluable series has returned to a former title — does not reach any of the highs of that earlier production. Anika Noni Rose as Ruth, the older sister, and Aisha Jackson as Eileen, the younger, are well cast, and each has endearing moments. The magazine editor both women fall for is beautifully sung by Javier Muñoz. The choral work is up to the high house standards. But except when it dances, the staging, by Zhailon Levingston, is shaggy and leaden and fatally lacking in laughs.
That raucous “Conga” number never fails to disappoint as Ruth frantically tries to interview a group of Brazilian sailors who just want to dance the Conga. It’s the Act One closer and yet I couldn’t help but notice several people seated around me didn’t return for Act Two. The last Broadway revival of Wonderful Town stemmed from a highly lauded Encores! production in 2000. How, I wonder, could the same show yield such different results? Hard to say but I bet if only the creatives had decided to stage it as a concert version this time around, we’d all be singing its praises.
| 1953 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 1954 | US Tour |
National Tour US Tour |
| 1955 | West End |
London Production West End |
| 1961 | Regional (US) |
Los Angeles Revival Regional (US) |
| 1963 | Off-Broadway |
City Center Revival Off-Broadway |
| 1986 | West End |
London Revival West End |
| 1994 | Off-Broadway |
New York City Opera Production Off-Broadway |
| 2000 | Off-Broadway |
Encores! Concert Off-Broadway |
| 2003 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 2025 | Off-Broadway |
New York City Center Encores! Production Off-Broadway |
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