Video: Go Inside Opening Night of NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

The final musical of a season is opening, so starts spreading the news

It is New York, New York, and we're here to celebrate with the company. It is opening night. How do you both feel tonight

Scared to death? Still? Of course. Yes, of course, still. Are you scared

I'm a little nervous. I'm not scared. I'm nervous, but I'm excited. I'm more excited than nervous. That's for sure

Let's talk about Fred Ebb for a moment. How proud Freddie would be tonight if he was here for this opening

He's actually up there on the stage. Fred is really here. I don't believe in stuff like this, but I think he's really here

because he wouldn't, for one second, let us do this without it

I know. I mean, we channeled Fred the entire time we were in rehearsal

We were channeling him. So he's up there with us every night. Let's talk about John Cander, one of my all-time favorite people

He fell in love with you during In The Heights. You've quite a history with him. What do you admire the most about John Cander and working with him

He's the nicest, most modest guy. The secret to how do you keep writing Broadway shows when you're 96 years old

is you stay curious and you stay interested. When I sat down with him for the first time, off Broadway in the Heights

I was 27 years old, and all he wanted to do was ask me questions about the place

process. And if I were just here as his friend supporting his new show, I'd be thrilled. The fact that I

get to write with him is a thrill beyond imagining What it like writing with him He writes really fast right He writes so fast And my job is to keep up And boy is it exciting to be asked to keep up with John Kander and just to write as fast as he writing

Because his famous quote is, like, I go to the piano, my hands know what to do

And I'm just trying to meet him every step of the way. And it's a joy

And it teaches you not to judge what you're writing. Because you've just got to go. He's going, so you're going to go

You look stunning. It is opening night. How do you feel? My heart is so

full. It's what you just said. It's getting bigger and bigger and bigger by the second. I'm so

excited to do this show tonight. But that's what this show does. It expands your heart. You fall in

love with all the people on stage. You fall in love with this show. What's made this so special

for you? The people. This is an incredible company of human beings. It's not just talent. That's a

given. Go see the show. But they are so generous and they are so kind and they lead with love

And creating this piece along artists like that, there's nothing like it. There's nothing like it. You feel like you can fly

It is opening night. How are you feeling? Like, what's going through your mind all day today

I can't, I can't talk about it too much because I'm pretty misty-eyed about it

I'm, I'm profoundly tired. But I'm also, I'm wired beyond belief that we get to

we get to debut this thing that we put a lot of sweat equity into, you know

What's made this so special for you, Colton, with working on New York, D.O.C

Couldn't distill it down to one thing. If I could the fact that when I leave John Cander every time we exchange I love you You can just put me away I set now

Send me off under the sun. Sharing the stage with Colton, what is it like the two of you working together

I've said this a lot. It is like a feral playground game

We are just two kids making each other crack up the entire time

It is so easy. We yes and each other all the time

Yeah, it's the best. How much joy you all bring to audiences here at the St. James, what that means to you

I think we all need a lot of joy right now. It's been a hard couple of years. There's been a lot of grief and loss

And so to fill audiences with that resurgence of hope, there's nothing like it

I'm so excited. I have my mom here. I have my girlfriend. I've got my friends here

It's going to be a beautiful, beautiful love letter to New York City kind of night

Oh, I'm back. I'm back baby, I'm back. It's been a while, but it also feels like I just, you know, I just, it's hard to explain this feeling. It's, it kind of catches up on you. You know you're creating a show. We started a couple months ago. But you're always just so focused in all the little details that it takes, you know, to put on a show. But I just can't believe we're here tonight already opening night. I feel so excited in Spanish, con much emotion. But so honored to just be here with this team to be able to share with my family

It's a dream come true. What's made this so special for you with working on New York, New York

It's made it special because it's an honest, true immigrant story with a lot of heart and

with a lot of respect. And I think getting to see that on a Broadway stage is so important for my Latina community for the immigrant community as well I have to say the fact that I get to represent my culture on stage my character speaks primarily in Spanish in the show

And I am of Cuban descent, both of my parents are Cuban and I play a Cuban mother

So the fact that I get to be the one that honors all of that on a big Broadway stage in this big beautiful musical is very special to me

What's made this so special for you? The people involved with the show, I mean, the kids

Casts are some of my dearest friends already. The creative team are legends that I could have never imagined working with my entire life

And here I am at my Broadway debut, 25 years old, working with these people that I've loved since I was a child

It's a dream come true. What's made this so special for you? I mean, it's the parallels between the 40s and today

Like what it means to be an artist in New York City hasn't changed much in terms of how you get there

So it's just nice to revel in the parallels from. from the 40s and now

How much fun are you having in this show? It's the time of my life. It's the time of my life

This is my fourth Broadway show with Susan Stroman. I've done two moving motion pictures as well

This is outstanding. I am celebrating New York. I'm celebrating us being back

This show is for everyone. I'm so thrilled. I'm excited. I'm in my hometown on a beautiful night

Celebrating the opening of New York, New York. I can't imagine a place I want to be more

I have to say this is such a culmination of so much just passion and storytelling and relationships and things that we've done in our lives and things that we learn from Fred and things that John has brought to life for us, that it's such a gift. It's such a gift. And we're so ready to bring it to the city