The choreographer worked with up-and-coming composer Leonard Bernstein to create “Fancy Free,” Robbin’s first dance for a ballet company. The piece made its debut on April 22, 1944 to an ecstatic reception, receiving 22 curtain calls. “Fancy Free” would be turned into the stage musical On the Town by the end of that year.
Robbins went on to serve as choreographer and/or director on a number of Broadway productions that would become part of the American stage canon. Some of his projects included Billion Dollar Baby (1945), High Button Shoes (1947, for which Robbins won his first Tony), Miss Liberty (1949), The King and I (1951), The Pajama Game (1954), Peter Pan (1954) and Gypsy (1959).