Some among you may remember that last year's MTW gala was a reunion concert performance of Merrily We Roll Along. In contrast, Bravo Bernstein! was smaller in scale, more low-key, and more elegant than celebratory. (Among those in attendance were Bernstein's three children, collaborator Betty Comden, Adolph Green's widow Phyllis Newman and daughter Amanda Green.) Still, it was highly entertaining as a host of stars performed Bernstein's wonderful music.

Directed by Lonny Price, MTW's former artistic director and current resident director, the show had Jason Robert Brown as its musical director and conductor. There were a number of surprises among the song stack, which offered a good balance of ballads and uptempo numbers. The first two numbers set the tone for the evening: One might have guessed that an event such as Bravo Bernstein! would begin with the now-classic overture from Candide (it was played by a 27-piece orchestra, led by Brown). But who would have expected the evening's host, David Hyde Pierce, to lead the cast in "Rehearse!" from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Bernstein's 1976 flop about race relations and the White House?

As it turned out, that number provided an ideal starting point for the evening, introducing the participating stars in a humorous fashion. Pierce kept the festivities light, throwing off a number of amusing quips including one about Emily Skinner's name in the program being the only place you'd see her there that night. (Skinner didn't perform.) He had the audience laughing with a running gag about his always having wanted to play Bernardo in West Side Story even though that character doesn't have a solo song in the show. In response, he co-opted a number from one of the musical's other characters, performing Maria's "I Feel Pretty" in hilarious fashion.

Though Pierce was the evening's connecting thread, he never drew focus from the songs or the people who sang them; when Bernstein's music was being performed, it was always front and center. The first act included three numbers from Wonderful Town: "A Little Bit in Love" (glamorously sung by Audra McDonald), "One Hundred Easy Ways" (firmly delivered by Mary Testa), and "The Story of My Life" (cut from the show but given a thoroughly moving rendition by Judy Blazer). After Jessica Molaskey sang On the Town's "Some Other Time" to husband John Pizarrelli's guitar accompaniment, Sara Ramirez smoldered her way through "It's Gotta Be Bad to Be Good" as Jason Robert Brown accompanied her on the piano. The first act ended with two selections from West Side Story, a superbly sung "Maria" by David Miller (recently seen and heard on Broadway's in Baz Luhrmann's La Bohème) and "Tonight," romantically rendered by the husband-and-wife team of Jason Danieley and Marin Mazzie.

At a running time of under two hours, Bravo Bernstein! was a compact show, but its mixture of rich music and wonderful talent made it a full evening in the most important sense.