PHOTO FLASH: Alan Alda, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Allison Janney, Julie Taymor, et al, at World Science Festival Opening Gala

The reading, which was directed by Bob Balaban, featured Bill Camp, Mireille Enos, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Allison Janney, David Morse, Liev Schreiber, and Brent Sexton. The play explores the intellectual and personal passions of Curie, the physicist and chemist most famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity.

Guests at the gala included Joy Behar, Nora Ephron, Mike Nichols, Itzhak Perlman, Regis and Joy Philbin, Peter Sarsgaard, Diane Sawyer, Julie Taymor, and Barbara Walters.

As previously announced the festival, which runs through June 5, will also feature Andrew Dawson’s The Articulate Hand; rap artist and writer Baba Brinkman; Grammy Award-winning jazz guitarist Pat Metheny; and dance company MOMIX.

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