At 96, John Kander, the composer of Chicago and Cabaret, knows a star when he sees one. Of Colton Ryan, nominated as Best Actor in a Musical for the new Kander and Ebb show New York, New York, he has this to say: “Colton sings, and you feel he’s experiencing the feelings he describes at the moment he’s expressing them. You can’t teach that.” As Exhibits A and B, Kander cites Ryan’s YouTube videos of “I’m Not Afraid of Anything,” which you’ve probably never heard before, and “Maria,” from West Side Story, which you’ve heard how many thousand times? Or we could cite “A Quiet Thing,” part whisper, part power ballad, and “Music, Money, Love,” devil-may-care yet electric, now stopping New York, New York eight times a week. Yes, the book’s underwritten, but as the self-sabotaging music man Jimmy Doyle, Ryan brandishes pipes like Sinatra’s, moves like Gene Kelly’s, and the looks of a sandy-blond Tony Curtis. He’s going places. —Matthew Gurewitsch