Laughter and goodwill reverberated through the American Museum of Natural History’s annual Museum Gala, where upon entering the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda, guests were welcomed by a menagerie of prehistoric creatures and cocktails, along with attendees that included former Glee and Broadway’s Finding Neverland star Matthew Morrison hand in hand with wife Renee Puente. In the crowd: Saturday Night Live Hillary Clinton doppelgänger and most recently Ruth Bader Ginsburg impersonator Kate McKinnon, who opted for a Jill Jill Stuart neutral two-tone number, and SNL veteran Kristen Wiig, who donned a winter white long-sleeved Erdem look. Tina Fey, a Museum Gala trustee, wore a subtle color-blocked Bibhu Mohapatra dress and wittily admitted, “The Hall of Gems is kind of like a hidden gem; you forget it’s there. Who wants to see dinosaurs? I like the Hall of Gems.”
Soon after, more than 700 guests poured into the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, where NBC News special correspondent Tom Brokaw and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio kicked off a seated candlelight dinner with a few words before introducing Seth Meyers, who offered up a bevy of laughs and touched on the election, Lorne Michaels receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Chicago Cubs. “I’m out of whale jokes. I need them to rotate the mammal that they hang from the ceiling,” Meyers cracked.
The event raised more than $4 million and the auction included tickets to a Saturday Night Live taping and front row seats to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. What followed was a special performance that was one part comedy show, one part concert by Steve Martin and Martin Short, with Steep Canyon Rangers and Jeff Babko, that punctuated the evening for an unforgettable night at the museum.