‘New York, New York’
Original Broadway Cast Recording (Peaches & Wine Label)

In a way, while watching “New York, New York – A New Musical” I couldn’t help but think of “The Flash.” Both were eagerly anticipated productions — the final major Broadway musical of the 2022-23 season, and Warner Bros./DC’s big superhero action movie of the summer — and both were based on familiar properties. Both were trounced by the critics, and to be fair, neither is a masterpiece. Yet, in each case, my expectations were sufficiently lowered to the point where I could actually enjoy “New York, New York” and “The Flash” for what they are.  

What works in “New York, New York” are the songs, dances, and musical numbers in general. What doesn’t work is the book. Here’s a story that makes even less sense than “The Flash.” 

As a concept, the entire production screams New York from the very first moment, when we see a neon sign, turned off, bannering the name of the show and the city that it takes place in; an actor playing an electrical engineer walks out and adjusts one bulb, which turns it on, and he then shouts, “I love this city.”

That seems to be the height of what “New York, New York” is trying to achieve; more than anything else, it wants its audience members to feel as “New York, New York” as possible. Not the natives, not necessarily the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, but the out-of-towners, the Californians, and the Koreans, to give them a true New York experience. When that extra shouts “I love this city,” they all likely want to pretend that they’re native New Yorkers — or even transplanted New Yorkers — and stand up and cheer along with him.

Geography or “place” is only half of the setting, the rest of which is time.  This is supposed to be 1946 into 1947. In contrast to the 1977 film that inspired the current show, which had a downer ending — after all, it was a Martin Scorsese project — this is a feel-good story. So, to achieve that end, David Thompson’s book has the characters facing adversity. 

Now, it’s not just about show and music biz hopefuls trying to make it and find love, it’s also about the ideals of diversity and inclusion, versus the casual racism/sexism/homophobia that was an everyday reality at the time.

Like, I’m hip, but still there are moments when the librettist just don’t know his history:  In “My Own Music,” Jesse Webb (John Clay III) tells us he wants to be a trumpeter like Louis Armstrong; a few scenes later in Act 1, he’s all dejected because he can’t get a gig at the Waldorf-Astoria. No jazz player, black or white, would have looked for work at the Waldorf, which was ground zero for the so-called Mickey Mouse bands like Guy Lombardo’s Royal Canadians.  

Eventually, the three male protagonists join forces and form a band at a club in what we now call South Harlem, but you have to wonder why he didn’t look for work with an actual jazz group uptown to begin with.

Still, the delights of the show, and particularly the score, are numerous, and most of them are appreciable from the newly released cast album. The score is a mish mosh combined from different sources, though all the music is by John Kander.  

The bulk of the lyrics are by his professional partner of more than 40 years, the late Fred Ebb — three from the 1977 movie, three from other shows, and four more “trunk songs” that have never been heard before.  Seven additional songs have words by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and finally four more have lyrics by Mr. Kander himself.  

Making the show and the album even more of a sonic delight, there are also 10 lush instrumentals that really enhance the experience, rather like the best movie music underscoring you ever heard. The score is remarkably consistent and sonorous, and truly enhances the combined legacies of Messrs. Kander and Miranda. 

The show is a long one, almost three hours with the intermission, but the vast majority of that time is the numbers. “Peaches and Wine” is a jaunty tap dance on top of a building under construction, a musicalization of the iconic 1932 photograph “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper.” (It’s also fully viewable on youtube.com.)  

“Happy Endings” is part of a Broadway show within the show, and is presented much more agreeably here than in the movie — no surprise that Susan Stroman knows more about staging a musical number than Mr. Scorsese. There’s some terrific Afro Latin music and dancing, particularly “San Juan Supper Club,” which accurately recreates the late 1940s mambo movement.  

“Quell’ Amor” is a new number that astutely recreates Italian opera; while the show’s title was inspired by Leonard Bernstein, this number borrows a title from Giuseppe Verdi. “Light,” with Mr. Miranda’s text, is a beautifully optimistic, contemplative Eleven O’Clock number that serves to dial down the activity and get us in the mood for the rousing finale that we know is going to be the title song, “New York, New York.”  By the way, it is, as sung by leading lady Anna Uzele, with leading man Colton Ryan surprising us on alto saxophone. 

“New York, New York,” the show, has its ups and downs, its hits and misses, but the album is a delight all the way through. I only wish it were written by the same team that gave us “The Flash,” because, if so, the story would end with Liza Minnelli and Robert DeNiro joining Ms. Uzele and Mr. Ryan onstage.