“Who, me?”

Asking this seemingly innocent question was Misty Copeland, making her debut as Ivy Smith in the Broadway musical “On the Town” on Tuesday. Ivy had just been named Miss Turnstiles.

The crowd whooped and roared, though it was pretty clear that the enthusiasm had little to do with a pageant to choose the subway poster girl. This summer, Ms. Copeland became the first African-American female principal of American Ballet Theater. Her fame is remarkable. At the show’s conclusion on Tuesday night, photographers and camera operators rushed to the edge of the stage. During curtain calls, Robin Roberts, the television broadcaster, presented her with flowers. And Ms. Copeland was worthy of the scene: Her Ivy was terrific. She also may want to consider wearing the musical’s 1940s-style clothing in her everyday life. It’s her silhouette. Before John Rando’s production of “On the Town” closes at the Lyric Theater on Sept. 6, audiences will have been treated to two new interpretations of Ivy Smith, the seeming girl-next-door who really spends her nights as a cooch dancer in Coney Island. Previously, Georgina Pazcoguin, a soloist at New York City Ballet, took over the part, choreographed by Joshua Bergasse and originated by her fellow company member, the stellar Megan Fairchild, for a limited run.

On Aug. 18, Ms. Pazcoguin’s tour de force came in the second act dream pas de deux, in which Ivy finds herself in a boxing ring with Gabey, played by Tony Yazbeck, whose superb partnering allowed Ms. Pazcoguin to do what she does best: move like a flame. She’s not the kind of dancer to linger in a pose; at City Ballet, many of her finest roles are in Jerome Robbins’s ballets. (“On the Town” is based on “Fancy Free,” which Robbins created for Ballet Theater in 1944.) Her Anita in “West Side Story Suite” is a dazzling mix of finesse and fury.

In the pas de deux, Ms. Pazcoguin, even in an unbecoming red wig, transported the choreography to a primal, sensuous place as she whipped across the stage in thrilling chaîné turns and landed in Mr. Yazbeck’s arms so suddenly that you thought, where was the leap? She was less convincing in scenes requiring a touch of innocence, and the acrobatic partnering of the Miss Turnstiles dance eluded her, showing that Mr. Bergasse’s athletic, robust choreography is harder than it appears. If not seamless, it can look like an obstacle course.