New York, New York (1977 film)

On V-J Day in 1945, a celebration in a New York City nightclub is underway, with music provided by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. While there, selfish and smooth-talking saxophone player Jimmy Doyle meets small-time USO singer Francine Evans, who, although lonely, wants nothing to do with Jimmy, who pesters her for her phone number. The next morning, they end up sharing a cab, and, against her will, Francine accompanies Jimmy to an audition, at which he argues with the club owner. Francine, in an attempt to get the audition back on track, begins to sing the old standard "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me". Jimmy joins in on his sax. The club owner is impressed and, to Francine's astonishment, they are both offered a job as a traveling boy-girl act. From that moment, Jimmy and Francine's relationship deepens into a mix of obsession and love. But there are problems—mainly, Jimmy's tendency to fight with his co-workers, his overly dramatic behavior, and his increasingly violent arguments with Francine, who becomes pregnant with their child. An especially harsh shouting match between them results in Francine going into labor. Jimmy rushes her to the hospital, where she delivers a boy. However, Jimmy is not ready to be a father or a good husband, so he abandons his wife and declines to see his newborn son as he leaves the hospital. Several years later, in a recording studio, Francine records "But the World Goes Round", a powerful anthem that makes the charts and helps her become a popular entertainment figure. In the years that follow, Jimmy and Francine both find success in the music industry; he becomes a renowned jazz musician and club owner, while she becomes a successful singer and film actress. Jimmy records a self-written song on his saxophone that tops the jazz charts, and Francine cements her stardom after singing "New York, New York", for which she has provided lyrics. Her performance, received by a wildly appreciative audience, takes place in the same nightclub where, years earlier, she and Jimmy had met. After the show, Jimmy telephones his ex-wife, suggesting that they get together for dinner. Francine is tempted, heads toward the stage-door exit, but, at the last moment, changes her mind. Jimmy, waiting on the sidewalk, realizes that he has been stood up and walks down the street. ==Cast==

• Liza Minnelli as Francine Evans • Robert De Niro as Jimmy Doyle • Lionel Stander as Tony Harwell • Barry Primus as Paul Wilson • Mary Kay Place as Bernice Bennett • Frank Sivero as Eddie DiMuzio • Georgie Auld as Frankie Harte • George Memmoli as Nicky • Harry Northup as Alabama • Dick Miller as Palm Club Owner • Clarence Clemons as Cecil Powell • Casey Kasem as DJ aka Midnight Bird • Jack Haley as Master Of Ceremonies • Adam David Winkler as Jimmy Doyle Jr. ==Production==

Irwin Winkler's purchase of the screenplay for New York, New York caught Martin Scorsese's attention before he began filming Taxi Driver. Lynn Stalmaster was the casting director. Filming began on June 14, 1976. Scorsese wanted to marry the movie musical of his parents' generation with a documentary style. He hoped that the juxtaposition would emphasize the continuity between human relationships through history. The actors would improvise on the script in front of the massive, unrealistic sets that fit the musical style. Having recently won the Palme d'Or, Scorsese felt that he could improve the script during filming, but his excesses led to mistakes, such as the opening V-J Day sequence being overly long. The initial cut of the film was four and a half hours. Scorsese's cocaine addiction made matters worse, and according to Peter Biskind, the director was also taking lithium to control his anger. Scorsese lamented, "I was just too drugged out to resolve the structure." He stopped press interviews one day short because, as he explained, he had run out of cocaine. He concluded, "It's a miracle that the film makes any kind of sense." Robert De Niro studied the saxophone with Georgie Auld, a veteran of swing giants Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman's bands. Auld also played bandleader Frankie Hart in the film. De Niro was so demanding of Auld's time that the musician felt like a "slave", and his wife worried that the actor would be joining them in bed with the instrument. Auld recorded the saxophone parts in the film, and De Niro mimed to them on set. Auld stood off-camera and would make a slashing motion if De Niro made a fingering or breathing mistake. The film cost $9 million, which was $2 million over the original budget, and was a much larger amount than the budgets for Scorsese's previous films. George Lucas predicted that the gross would improve by $10 million if Scorsese would change the ending to a happy one. Scorsese considered having a cameo appearance in the film, but declined because he would have had to shave his beard. ==Releases==

The film was released on June 21, 1977, with a running time of 155 minutes. The box-office failure of the film prompted United Artists to shorten the film to 136 minutes for Europe. In 1981, the film was re-released with a runtime of 163 minutes. Scorsese had spent $350,000 of the budget on filming a musical-within-a-musical called "Happy Endings", which depicts Francine Evans as a movie star. The twelve-minute sequence was choreographed by Ron Field. The scene was restored in the 1981 version, and the expanded film earned praise for its ironic look at Hollywood musicals. ==Music==

Theme song Fred Ebb and John Kander's initial submission for the theme song was deemed so bad that Robert De Niro rejected it outright. The lyrics began, "They always say it's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here", and the melody was completely different. The eventual song, "Theme from New York, New York", begins with one of Kander's famous vamps, derived from the ragtime practice of putting the melody underneath a repeated note. Two years later, Frank Sinatra recorded a cover version for his triple album Trilogy: Past Present Future. On June 14, 1980, the single reached #32 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was Sinatra's last Top 40 hit. Both Sinatra's and Minnelli's versions have become closely associated with Manhattan in New York City. Sinatra performed the number at nearly all of his concerts until his retirement in 1995, and Minnelli continues to perform it at nearly all of hers. Soundtrack The LP soundtrack for New York, New York is a double album. It is produced, conducted and arranged by Ralph Burns. "Happy Endings" was recorded for the film but edited out of the theatrical release. Personnel • Abe Most – Clarinet • Bob Tricarico, Jerome Richardson – Saxophone • Chauncy Welsh, Jim Cleveland – Trombone • Conte Condoli, Snooky Young, Warren Luening – Trumpet • Russ Freeman – Piano • Jim Hughart – Bass • Bill LaVorgna, Sol Gubin – Drums • John Neal – Engineer Charts ==Reception==

Box office The film underperformed to expectations at the box office, grossing $16.4 million against a $9 million budget. The disappointment depressed Scorsese and worsened his drug addiction. Certain that New York, New York would be a hit, United Artists structured the film's box office as a bulwark against the flop that they had expected in Rocky. The two productions pooled their profits, but Rocky ended up covering the losses of Scorsese's movie. In his introduction to the film's DVD release, Scorsese explains that he intended for the film, which he saw as an homage to the musicals of Classical Hollywood cinema, to break from the gritty realism for which he had become famous, hence the deliberately artificial sets and storyline. He acknowledges that the experiment did not please everyone. Critical response The film has an overall critical score of 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 50 reviews; the site's consensus explains, "Martin Scorsese's technical virtuosity and Liza Minnelli's magnetic presence are on full display in New York, New York, although this ambitious musical's blend of swooning style and hard-bitten realism makes for a queasy mixture." Christopher Porterfield wrote in Time, "If this movie were a big-band arrangement, it would be a duet for a sax man and a girl singer, but with the soloists in a different key from the band." Vincent Canby of The New York Times wondered, "Why should a man of Mr. Scorsese's talent be giving us what amounts to no more than a film buff's essay on a pop-film form that was never, at any point in film history, of the first freshness?" Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times lamented, "Scorsese's New York, New York never pulls itself together into a coherent whole, but if we forgive the movie its confusions we're left with a good time." In the Chicago Reader, Dave Kehr concluded, "Scorsese created a very handsome and dynamic film, but the spectacular set pieces don't add up to much." Variety raved, "A final burst from Old Hollywood, Minnelli tears into the title song and it's a wowser." ''Time Out's'' Geoff Andrew enthused, "Scorsese's tribute/parody/critique of the MGM musical is a razor-sharp dissection of the conventions of both meeting-cute romances and rags-to-riches biopics. Independent reviewer Gene Shalit said that the argument between Francine and Jimmy in the parked car was the most realistic he had ever seen on film. In Cinéaste, Leonard and Barbara Quart called the film "an interesting and at sometimes exciting failure..." They pointed out the self-conscious parallels with the work of Liza's mother in A Star Is Born, and praised Scorsese's "stylized settings (gold tinsel snowfalls, claustrophobic reddish interiors, and spotlit, dream-like musical solos)", but felt that they were "too calculated and without purpose". William Harding heaped blame on De Niro's performance: "[He] zooms in on the role as if he were playing Hamlet. His hard work backfires...The character of Jimmy Doyle is completely obscured by the spectacle of DeNiro attempting to come to grips with an impossibly one-note role." Accolades The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: • 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs: • "Theme from New York, New York – #31 • 2006: AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals – Nominated ==Stage musicals==

Brazilian musical The film was adapted into a stage musical in Brazil. It premiered on April 14, 2011, in Teatro Bradesco in São Paulo, with direction by José Possi Neto. The songs were not translated, instead featuring subtitles projected on a digital panel. Broadway musical The film was adapted into a stage musical in the United States. It opened on Broadway on April 26, 2023, at the St. James Theater, following previews that began on March 24. The production received mixed reviews, with Entertainment Weekly saying that the musical was "deeply flawed, but deeply entertaining", and Elisabeth Vincentelli of The New York Times saying that the show was "The Big Apple, Without Bite". The Los Angeles Times said that "the film is not good. The new Broadway musical is worse." Due to the poor reviews, lack of Tony Award wins, and high production costs, producers posted a hasty announcement on July 23, 2023, stating that the musical would close on July 30. ==See also==