Sono Osato said this, quite eloquently, of her experience in On the Town:
"It was amazing to me that, at the height of a world war fought over the most vital political, moral and racial issues, a Broadway musical should feature, and have audiences unquestionably accept, a half-Japanese as an All-American Girl. This is probably the most indelible impression I have had of the magic of the theater. I could never have been accepted as Ivy Smith in films, or later on television. Only the power of illusion created between performers and audiences across the footlights can transcend political preference, moral attitudes and racial prejudice." It is also significant that the original cast of On the Town included six African-American performers, who danced side-by-side with the other performers and not in specialty numbers. They did, however, have to cut one number because it featured an interracial couple.
One of the black performers who had danced with Martha Graham previously, Dorothy McNichols, remembered it feeling like "the first integrated show." She told a story of when the show went on tour and she was barred in Baltimore from entering the stage door. The doorman said she couldn't be in the show because she was black.
Jerry Robbins was told, and he came out of the stage door in all his resplendent fury and rage, used a barrage of four-letter words and told the doorman that if he dared to keep "any of my people" out of the theater, he would lose his job instantly.
