RELATED: Photos from the Symphony Space 30th Birthday Party

The 30th birthday bash for Symphony Space on Thursday night, consisting of 46 acts, demonstrated why the Upper West Side performance and film center is one of New York’s most beloved cultural institutions.

For one thing, the more than 80 performers who participated, including Marian Seldes, Liz Callaway, and Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller (the latter two read “The Owl and the Pussy Cat” by Edward Lear), all hustled back to their seats after their appearances so as not to miss a moment themselves. And when the curtain call came, they all returned to the stage.

The staff’s pride in the institution was evident at intermission, when a dozen employees walked up and down the aisles passing out glasses of Champagne to members of the audience — more than 900 people. The co-founders of Symphony Space, Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, then led a triumphant toast, acknowledging its executive director, Cynthia Elliott, and lifers on the staff, such as the education director, Madeline Cohen.

The audience roared and clapped all evening. The “Selected Shorts,” in which actors read short stories, were some of the best in the show. It’s no wonder this series has become a nationally distributed public radio show. Roy Blount Jr. told of the wardrobe he once chose for hosting a “Selected Shorts” evening — six different pairs of shorts. He changed into pants when he realized the audience wasn’t getting his pun.

Fritz Weaver and Bernadette Quigley performed “The Shortest Bloomsday” — yes, it included that part, yes — in homage to the Bloomsday marathon reading staged annually as part of the international celebration of James Joyce’s “Ulysses.”

Eugenia Zukerman, who performed at the first Symphony Space event — 12 hours of Bach, on January 7, 1978 — returned to play “Flute and Drum Under the Setting Sun” by Tan Mi Zi.

The Thalia Follies had a Hillary Clinton look-alike perform “It’s My Turn, Bill.”

KT Sullivan did a pitch-perfect rendition of “I’m a Dumbbell” by Irving Berlin; Calvin Trillin imagined what he’d say to the politicians he has skewered in poetry if he ran into them at a party; Theodore Bickel sang a version of “If I Were a Rich Man” in Yiddish, and Melissa Errico, who has a CD of lullabies coming out for Mother’s Day, was adorable and romantic — and had a voice as clear as a bell in “That’s Him” by Kurt Weill.

“News Flashes” throughout the program weaved in the Symphony Space story: its strong Upper West Side identity (patrons consider Central Park West the East Side of the West Side), real estate battles (which Symphony Space won, with the help of several law firms who donated their services), and growth (a James Polshek-designed expansion that has led to almost twice the number of programs and twice the budget, too, thanks in part to chief donors Leonard and Susan Nimoy and Peter Norton).

“It’s almost all true,” Mr. Sheffer said of his version of events, at the post-performance party at Unwined, the downstairs lounge on the premises.

Excerpts from the show will be shown at the official 30th-anniversary gala in March.

agordon@nysun.com