Music: Satire and Slapstick

A genuinely funny ballet is as rare as, well, a genuinely funny Broadway comedy these days. Choreographing humor, in fact, requires someone with the quirky genius of Jerome Robbins, whose seldom seen 1956 comic gem, The Concert, has just been auspiciously revived by the New York City Ballet. Completely restaged and updated by Robbins, it is still a hilarious, crowd-pleasing delight, especially for anyone who has ever suffered through a Swan Lake mangled by an underrehearsed road company.

As the title suggests, The Concert starts at a recital. A mop-haired pianist...

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