The Playbill for New York, New York lists the show as being “inspired by” the 1977 flick of the same name.” That Martin Scorsese opus wasn’t an ode to the glories of the titular burg, as the stage musical ascribes to be. The movie was basically a weepie, detailing the rocky courtship, marriage and break-up of volatile bandleader Jimmy Doyle (Robert DeNiro) and scrappy chanteuse Francine Evans (Liza Minnelli). The new book by David Thompson and Sharon Washington loads on three more main plotlines and provides a racial twist to the prime story. Francine (charismatic Anna Uzele) is now African-American. Her romance with Irish-American Jimmy (enchanting Colton Ryan) is freighted with racial tension as they combat discrimination in 1946.
In addition, there are the struggles of African-American jazz musician Jesse Webb (dynamic John Clay III), Cuban gay bongo player Mateo Diaz (energetic Angel Sigala) and Jewish refugee violinist Alex Mann (moving Ben Davis). The latter is connected to the story because he gets fiddle lessons from Francine’s landlady, Madame Veltri (Emily Skinner, overcoming melodramatic excesses in the script) who’s got her own tale of woe. It’s as if the creative team were checking off a list of diversity and inclusion.
The gorgeous score is a combination of John Kander-Fred Ebb trunk songs and new material by Kander with lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. So the book and the score are something of a hodgepodge. Director-choreographer Susan Stroman is not quite able to weave all these disparate elements together into a cohesive whole, but there are many isolated stand-out moments. A sizzling tap number atop a skyscraper under construction is fun, even though it appears stuck in the middle of the action for no strong reason. Stroman’s staging involving chorus members holding up letters to spell out such locations as Central Park and Grand Central Station is clever. (Beowulf Boritt’s elaborate and detailed settings create the perfect 1940s environment as do Donna Zakowska’s dynamite, period-perfect costumes.) Francine’s first Broadway role is excitingly staged.
Perhaps the most enchanting number is the simplest as Ryan’s Jimmy sweetly delivers “A Quiet Thing” from Flora the Red Menacea,/em> in velvety soft tones reminiscent of Harry Connick Jr. and Michael Buble.
While New York, New York may not be equal to the sum of its many parts, it’s still a giant-sized box of Broadway delights, particularly the enthralling finale when the orchestra rises out of the pit on an elevated platform with Uzele and Ryan spiritedly putting across the title tune. Of course, the audience knows all the words and sings rapturously along.
