‘On the Town’ Is a Helluva Revival

The webs have been swept away, the comic book villains are long gone and even the name of the theater has changed. So what better way to bid farewell to the doomed Spider-Man musical at the re-christened Lyric Theatre than with a pure American classic? An exuberant, dazzling revival of  On the Town opened Thursday, filling Broadway’s biggest theater with big, crowd-pleasing dance numbers, lavish and clever visuals and superb performances from a massive cast. It’s simply a helluva show. The 1944 romance-chasing romp by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green — later made into a film with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra — has been celebrated by director John Rando and choreographer Joshua Bergasse, who have filled this lighter-than-air confection with helium.