"I have to thank my cast," announced the cast of one, provoking yet another bellylaugh (only, in truth, he was quite serious—or at least, true to the spirit of the whole evening, seriocomic). "They are here," he declared. "They are all here. I just get to be them."

And, with that, he introduced in the audience various members of his family tree whom he gave a sound and hilarious shaking—two brothers and a couple of uncles, one of whom is The Barbeque King who, in Crystal's mimed vision, loomed like Mount St. Helena.

Then came the well-placed cherry on top of this particular Sunday. "This may sound corny," he admitted a little sheepishly, "but tonight it's really appropriate to say on a Broadway stage: `My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. I thank you.'"

Somebody up there has naches.

And since a good portion of those Sundays were spent at Yankee Stadium, making the once and future comic into a lifelong and rather rabid Yankees fan, it was not surprising to find the opening-night guest list had a heavy Yankee accent. Even Yogi Berra, who never came near the theatre where Ben Gazzara did an incredible copycat impersonation in Nobody Don't Like Yogi, came out for this. "Billy's a good egg," assessed Yogi.

"A ton of Yankees are here tonight," beamed manager Joe Torre. "Just about our whole front office was here—from Brian Cashman, our general manager, on down—and Jorge Posada. The Yankees feel Billy's part of the team, and we're proud of him tonight. Every emotion you could conjure up is right up there on that stage—the laughs, the smiles, the sadness, the cries—all Billy, and to let everybody in on his life, I think, is pretty special."

Sportcaster Bob Costas felt 700 Sundays went beyond club lines. "It's secondary he's a great Yankees fan. The frame of reference is so familiar to so many of us. We grew up in that era. And the combination of humor and heart that he has is what sets him apart."

New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, an infrequent first-nighter at best, honored the comic with his attendance. Hizzonor and an entourage of seven showed up with Swat-Team precision just as the lights went down, stayed collectively in their seats during intermission, greeting the occasional constituent who extended his hand and then fled en masse as Crystal was taking his bows (missing all of the emotional curtain speech above).

Celebrities who turned up were a reflection of Crystal more than anything else, not necessarily the sort usually found on the opening-night red carpet. They consisted of film co-stars (Robert DeNiro, Stanley Tucci, Harvey Keitel), fellow funnymen (Robin Williams, Regis Philbin, Caroline Rhea), film directors (Rob Reiner, Barry Levinson), newscasters who've had Crystal as a guest (Mike Wallace, James Lipton)—plus Jon Bon Jovi, Jessica Lange, Chaz Palminteri, Rue McClanahan, Brenda Blethyn, director Michael Mayer, Heather Randall, producer Pierre Cossette and Sheila MacRae.

The guest list wasn't the only indication that Crystal jumped in and personalized his opening-night party at Tavern on the Green. Even the usual Tavern cuisine was varied accordingly. "Part of the show was about how Jews eat Italian food and Chinese food on Sunday night so that's what we served, said professional party planner Suzanne Tobak.

"That was Billy Crystal's idea. It was our job to make all of that happen." The Crystal Room—which was called that before the show—went with less tables than usual to accommodate a dance band, Central Plaza, and newly installed makeshift dance floor.

"Certainly the band was Billy Crystal's idea because it's everything that's important to him. And he put together the musicians who actually played. About the only thing we can claim that was our idea was the goodie bag." It was an overlarge replica of a Chinese takeout container, but what it contained was pure Crystal: a Yankee cap, a baseball autographed by Crystal, brown and blond fortune cookies containing catch-phrases from the show, a Yankee catcher's mitt key chain, and two CDs, one of which was recorded by his uncle, Milt Gabler, and contained Billie Holiday's classic "Strange Fruit."

Guest books at the Tavern entrance were also Crystal's idea. "It's a special evening for him, and he wanted something to take home to make it special," explained Tomack.

The nonexclusive press conference was a departure from the norm—and definitely his idea. Instead of repeating himself in endless one-on-ones, he met the press en masse with director Des McAnuff and co writer Alan Zeibel in one of Tavern's siderooms. It lacked the intimacy of the other arrangement, but Crystal arrived looking like the guy who'd just made it across the finish line and was trying to make it gracefully through the party grind. Considering the performance he was coming from, it was understandable and forgivable.

Yes, he was happy he did it. "I'm beyond happy," he admitted. "Of all the things I've done, I've never felt as full and as creative as an actor and a comedian and a writer as I do doing this show. I've been talking about doing this for years and years and years, so last year I said to Des and Alan, `All right, let's put aside six weeks, and let's workshop it.'

"The way we rehearsed the piece was I just started talking and Alan would write this down and that down, and suddenly we'd have a first act, then a second act. It was all the truth and all real. The whole was written to improvisations of music. All the music in this show I picked and brought them into rehearsal and said, `This could go with that material.'"

It's a different kettle of fish than hosting the Oscar show, which he has done rather famously eight times. "The Oscars isn't mine, and it's satisfying to a degree. But this is the story of my life. You can't compare the two. I'm free here. I don't have to worry about commercial breaks, introducing this one, introducing that one. Here, it's constantly a new night for me every time I get out there so there's really no comparison. This feels like a culmination of a lot of things that I've been through, written about, thought about, joked about and mused about. Now, because of Alan and Des, we put it all together." Continued...