6. On the Town

On the Town marked the very first Broadway musical for Leonard Bernstein (music), Jerome Robbins (choreography), and Betty Comden & Adolph Green (book and lyrics). On the Town was loosely based on a ballet by Robbins and Bernstein called Fancy Free which had opened in April 1944, and they completely made On the Town from scratch by December 1944! Fancy Free itself was inspired by Paul Cadmus' painting "The Fleet's In" from 1934, seen below.