Instead of doing the easy and obvious thing of having the first-nighters over next door to one of the many felicitous rooms at Sardi's, the show's producers had them sample some authentic wind-chill, schlepping to the Zipper Tavern on West 37th St.

It was a cold and windy night, bitterly cold and not the sort of night you'd want your cabbie to overshoot the runway three blocks. (By all means, you must mention this to our photographer, Aubrey Reuben, who is still smarting from the experience.)

Frozen stiff, we arrived at the designated tavern, which didn't appear to be open for business at all. Rapping on the large glass door produced an annoyed lad with a clipboard who informed us we'd have to wait outside until the party began a half-hour hence. We, in turn, informed him of a few things, and he directed us to an entranceway next door at the Zipper Theatre, where a show was going on and we were rechanneled to a connecting passageway that brought us to the Zipper Tavern. It was deserted, save for some scurrying about on the sidelines by the staff.

This was when we realized, having seen the show Off-Broadway (where it logged up 1,004 performances at the Union Square Theatre), that most of the first-nighters were still back at the theatre playing volley-ball with the gigantic balloons that were unleashed at the finale. Audience participation gets so intense they don't notice that Slava & Co. leave the stage, one by one, and slip away to their dressing rooms.

It was a pretty low-voltage evening, with nary a flicker of star power.

The one who came closest to star-qualification was Daryl Glenn, who happened to be the date of a production aide. Who? you say. Daryl Glenn created and, with Jo Lynn Burks, performed an act at The Metropolitan Room, based on the terrific, cast-concocted song-score for Robert Altman's 1975 "Nashville." It will be reprised there Dec. 20 at 2:30 PM and Dec. 21 at 1:30 PM. Glenn invited Keith Carradine, who wrote the film's Oscar-winning Best Song ("I'm Easy"), but the actor had to pass since the show-times clashed with his Mindgame matinees at the SoHo Playhouse.

Randall Wreghitt, a name-brand producer (Grey Gardens and Little Women, for two), was present. His most recent production was his annual Christmas party held last week, on a school night, at his home in Union City, NJ. He, too, was feeling the pinch of star power — acutely, having passed up the premiere and party for the movie version of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning Doubt, where Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis were promised.

Slava's five producers, of course, were early arrivals, omnipresent and ever-ready with quotes (save for the best known of the lot, indie actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who was M.I.A. all evening or maintaining a low-to-no profile for the festivities).

"We just thought it would be a joy to the public, especially at this time of year, to bring some snow and cheer — something uplifting — to Broadway," piped up one producer, Judith Marinoff Cohn, but she had no idea how much paper was needed for the show. "The green stuff or the white stuff? I thought you meant money."

John Pinckard ducked the same paper question. He climbed aboard as producer after the show's two-year run downtown. "It's been around the world — London, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami. At any given time there are two companies doing the show.

"It's such a fantastic little show, unlike anything else you can see on Broadway right now. It's high art — Slava Polunin is one of the living masters of Russian clown comedy — and it's populist enough that people who do not come to the theatre can come see this for a holiday entertainment and enjoy themselves. While the four-year-old next to me is going berserk for the snow effects, people are really appreciating the art and sophistication of the images and the visual storytelling — they're engaged at that level. It really is that delicious collision of art and commerce that Broadway kinda has to sit on. It's so accessible that it is truly engaging to all ages. The producer is always going to say it's a show for everyone, but this kinda is." Continued...