“As much a ballet… Dance numbers drive and expand the story”

“As much a ballet as a dance show, On the Town is the perfect item for new artistic director Brett Smock to put his imprint on the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival. Although still a young guy, Smock has been around Auburn many summers and has already established his aesthetic, as in his earth-shaking Cabaret (July 2012). Before writing On the Town, Robbins and Bernstein composed a wordless ballet, Fancy Free, numbers from which survive here. So in On the Town, dance numbers drive and expand the story and don’t merely ornament it.”

JAMES MACKILLOP