“New York, New York” should have worked. The musical features songs from the brilliant team of John Kander and the late Fred Ebb ("Chicago"), and from Lin-Manuel Miranda ("Hamilton"). But none of the ingenuity and edge that made those musicals era-defining hits comes through this time.
Imagine a New York where construction workers tap dance on steel girders high above the city, sorta like that famous photograph you've seen a million times, and where kindly landladies who once played Carnegie Hall might tutor a young Holocaust refugee to a Julliard scholarship, and breez.
The show based on the Martin Scorsese film has five lyricists and writers, and it feels like all of the writers got to do their thing and make their points, but no one insisted on everyone getting on board with the same style and story.