Wonderful Town

Wonderful Town is a musical with a book written by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Leonard Bernstein. Based on Fields and Chodorov’s 1940 play My Sister Eileen, which is itself based on the collection of short stories by Ruth McKenney.

It debuted on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on February 25, 1953 and ran for 559 performances, closing on July 3, 1954 and starred Rosalind Russell and Edie Adams. It was directed by George Abbott,choreographed by Donald Saddler and produced by Robert Fryer.

Wonderful Town tells the story of two sisters from Ohio who come to New York to make their fortunes: Ruth, the older, wisecracking one in writing and journalism, and Eileen, the younger, beautiful one in show business. Their subsequent adventures, which include dive apartment-dwelling on Christopher Street, involve the various wacky denizens and citizens of bohemian Greenwich Village they encounter while on their search for fortune, fame and romance in the big city.