Born in 1918 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Leonard Bernstein emerged in the 1940s as one of the most dynamic young figures in American music, equally at home as a composer, conductor, pianist, and musical communicator. On the Town traces its origins to Fancy Free, a 1944 ballet choreographed by Jerome Robbins to music by Leonard Bernstein. For the Broadway stage, Bernstein collaborated with lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green to expand the ballet into a full-length musical. The story follows three American sailors on wartime leave in New York City who fall in love with the same woman—and, just as fervently, with the city itself. First produced on Broadway in 1944, On the Town captured the energy, optimism, and restlessness of wartime America, blending classical technique with jazz and popular song. The musical was adapted into a 1949 film, though Hollywood conventions led to the replacement of nearly all of the original Broadway score.

Bernstein crafted Three Dance Episodes for orchestra from the full score of On the Town, conducting its premiere on February 3, 1946, with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. As Bernstein described,   

It seems only natural that dance should play a leading role in the show, On the Town, since the idea of writing it arose from the success of the ballet, “Fancy Free.” I believe this is the first Broadway show ever to have as many as seven or eight dance episodes in the space of two acts; and, as a result, the essence of the whole production is contained in these dances. I have selected three of them for use as a concert suite. That these are, in their way, symphonic pieces rarely occurs to the audience actually attending the show, so well-integrated are all the elements, thanks to George Abbott's direction, the choreographic inventiveness of Jerome Robbins, and the adroitness of the book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.  

Each of the Three Dance Episodes is dedicated to someone closely connected to the original production of On the Town. The first, “The Great Lover,” grows out of a dream sequence in which one of the three sailors falls asleep on the subway after spotting a poster of Ivy Smith, newly crowned “Miss Turnstiles” in a subway-sponsored beauty contest. (Bernstein dedicated this episode to Sono Osata, the ballerina who created the role of Miss Turnstiles.) The music evokes the mechanical energy of the subway car itself, slipping seamlessly into swing rhythms as fantasy overtakes reality.

Dedicated to Betty Comden, the second episode, “Lonely Town” (Pas de deux), offers a striking change of mood in its sense of intimacy and isolation. The episode portrays a quiet, tender encounter between a sailor and a young woman he meets by chance in Central Park. Bernstein paints the scene with musical colors that are distinctly American, blending the open, spacious style of Aaron Copland—whom Bernstein called “the closest thing to a composition teacher [he] had ever had”—with blues harmonies and jazz inflections. 

Bernstein draws the final episode, “Times Square,” from the Act I finale. Dedicated to Nancy Walker, a member of the original cast, it opens like a jazz combo bursting to life, with clarinet and rhythm section leading the charge. As the sailors plunge into Times Square in search of excitement, fragments of “New York, New York” bring to life the sound and motion of the city at full tilt. The result is a vivid musical portrait of wartime Manhattan: brash, exhilarating, and alive with possibility.