Stars of the stage and screen illuminated The Pierre to honor the legendary writing team of Comden & Green at the Drama League’s gala, this year titled “A Musical Celebration of Broadway.” Betty Comden and the late Adolph Green (who passed away in October 2002, just shy of his 88th birthday), had the longest creative collaboration in the history of American theatre, beginning with the 1944 Broadway hit On The Town and including: Peter Pan, Bells Are Ringing, Do Re Mi, Wonderful Town, Applause, On the Twentieth Century, and the Will Rogers Follies. The two also penned the screenplays for the 1952 silver-screen classic Singin’ in the Rain, The Band Wagon (1953), and Auntie Mame (1958).

Comden sat front and center, amidst VIP friends, as honorary hostess Phyllis Newman Green opened the show and introduced Comden & Green’s crooning Avenue Q puppet counterparts. Then musical luminaries, including: Laura Benanti, Melissa Errico, Donna McKechnie, Martin Moran, Evan Pappas, Donna Murphy, Jennifer Hope Wills, and Mary Testa took the stage to perform their own renditions of Comden & Green standards. Kitty Carlisle Hart shared anecdotes about the revered partners, and Lauren Bacall recalled how, at 15, she first met the pair when they performed at her aunt’s residence for senior citizens. A video tribute featured an interview with Comden & Green at the start of their careers, a clip of Broadway darling Carol Channing reminiscing about her meeting with the pair (in their teens!), and clips of the song-and-dance routines of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire in the writers’ big-screen productions.

Broadway aficionados included: Chairs Debbie Bancroft, Jeanne Lawrence, April Gow, Elizabeth Stribling, and CeCe Black; Drama League Prez Patricia Follert; Paola Isabella Tornito; Michele and Larry Herbert; Georgette Mosbacher; Coco and Arie Kopelman; Somers Farkas; Christopher Mason; Marty Richards; Audrey Gruss; and Hunt Slonem.

“Broadway babies” and gents had a glittering night “on the town” that will be long remembered....