When "Wonderful Town" swept on to the stage of the Winter Garden on February 26. 1953, audience and critics were equally roused to a fever-pitch of excitement. Not since "Guys and Dolls" had there been such an outburst of unanimous enthusiasm. Just to prove the unusually high quality of Leonard Bernstein's melodies as well as Adolph Green and Betty Comden's distinctive lyrics, each critic seemed to pick a different song as the "pop tune" of the show. All agreed, however, that "A Quiet Girl." "It's Love." "A Little Bit In Love," and "Ohio" were not only showstoppers but ear-ticklers which would long be remembered for their uncanny combination of words and music.
   "Wonderful Town" is the culmination of a happy series of successes. It began as a brisk and brilliant book by Ruth McKenney about her baby-faced but man-slaying sister Eileen, The book was transformed into a winning play ("My Sister Eileen") by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov, after which It made an equally effective appeal when it reached new audiences as a laugh-provoking motion picture. In each version the plot was about the same. In "Wonderful Town" it again centers about two girls from Columbus, Ohio, who come to the Big City on the Hudson to make their careers. Ruth wants to be a writer, Eileen an actress. Ruth is dark, attractive, possessor of a sharp wit, a girl who knows how to take care of herself. Eileen is blonde, bland, and wide-eyed, the kind of girl every man insists upon protecting. The time is 1935; the place is Greenwich Village. The girl's troubles begin when they are talked into renting a one-room basement apartment at the exact spot where men are blasting in order to build the new subway. They are also more than a little bothered by the queer characters who keep appearing at their curtain less street level window and even invade the apartment, most of them looking for Violet, the former tenant, who has made a good living by dispensing her favors. Ruth finds that getting established as a writer in New York is far from easy; Eileen finds that getting on the stage is almost Impossible. One misadventure follows another, an editor, and ex-athlete, an operator of a Village nightclub, a wolf disguised as a newspaperman, an over-refined drugstore manager, a crooked landlord who is also a Sunday painter, and several members of the Brazilian Navy, all somehow get themselves mixed up in the action. Eileen manages to get arrested, and as a result charms every member of the police force with whom she comes in contact. Ruth gets a newspaper assignment, which turns out to be a hoax. Just as dark clouds descend upon the two sisters, the sun breaks through; Eileen's publicity lands her a night club job, and even a decoration from the Brazilian government, while a story Ruth has written about the naval cadets wins her a much desired spot on a leading newspaper.
   All of this is framed in gayety that never lets down. The book has unusual substance and the music is as nimble as the lines. Audiences and critics agreed that here was a show in which the fun never falters, in which the songs are both literate and lively, in short Wonderful Town" has everything that an intelligent musical can hope to have.