Balanchine's Slaughter on Tenth Avenue

We saw this as part of an evening of short works at PNB's Broadway Festival.

Balanchine originally choreographed this piece for the 1936 Rogers and Hart musical On Your Toes. In 1967 he made a ballet with new choreography but with the same general concept for the New York City Ballet.

Slaughter on Tenth Avenue is a ballet-within-a-ballet, which itself tells a story of a strip joint and a customer who falls in love with the boss' girl. In the larger ballet, a jealous premier danseur has hired a mobster to kill his rival during the premiere of Slaughter. PNB made use of the lower boxes and enacting the mob setup outside the curtain to set the story up.

They also showed a bit of a movie version of Slaughter on a giant movie screen before the beginning of the performance, which was interesting for historical perspective.

The performance itself was catchy and fun.