TV EXCLUSIVE: Inside the Starry New York City Center Reopening Gala Featuring Performance Highlights!

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New York City Center has just reopened following a historic renovation and modernization with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and star-studded gala last night, October 25 at New York City Center. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg conducted The Encores! Orchestra in the opening number (as a nod to Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who conducted the New York Philharmonic when City Center opened as a performing arts center in 1943).

Broadway Beat was there for the reopening, and brings you interview and exclusive performance footage with the evening's participants below!

The show, directed by Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall with music direction by Rob Berman, featured Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Joshua Bell, Matthew Broderick, Barbara Cook, Denyce Graves, Patti LuPone, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Donna Murphy, New York City Ballet, Sarah Jessica Parker and BrIan Williams. The performance was followed by dinner at Cipriani 42 Street.

New York City Center (Arlene Shuler, President & CEO) has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city for nearly 70 years. It was Manhattan's first performing arts center, dedicated by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1943 with a mission to make the best in music, theater and dance accessible to all audiences. Today, City Center is home to many distinguished companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club; a roster of renowned national and international visiting artists; and its own critically acclaimed and popular programs. The Tony-honored Encores! musical theater series has been hailed as "one of the very best reasons to be alive in New York" and has expanded to include a new partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center. Dance has been integral to the theater's mission from the start, and dance programs, including the annual Fall for Dance Festival and a partnership with London's Sadler's Wells Theatre, remain central to City Center's identity. City Center is dedicated to providing educational opportunities to New York City students and teachers with programs such as Encores! In Schools and the Young People's Dance Series. Special workshops cater to families, seniors and other groups, while events such as the Fall for Dance DanceTalk series offer learning opportunities to the general public.