'On the Town': No Frank, No Gene, No Jules, No Problem

My daughters, Lea and Sara, ages 9 and 12, were very skeptical about On the Town as a revival. MGM's 1949 movie version is one of their absolute favorites. As Sara said, when I asked her if she cared to see On the Town on Broadway: "Papa. How can they replace Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly? With who?" It is a tribute, I guess, to the revival's ad campaign -- as broadcast in the back of taxi cabs (God help me) and plastered on the side of buses (on the town, indeed!) -- that my girls eventually bec...