It was Opening Night in Times Square for the Broadway Bridges program as the Broadway League kicked off the 2023 season of its initiative to offer $10 Broadway tickets to thousands of high school sophomores and their teachers.

“Broadway is one of the diamonds of our city,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew at the Feb. 2 event. “We’re so proud to be part of this, and we want every student to get to come to a Broadway show.”

To celebrate the opening of the 2023 season, which will feature 21 Broadway shows, the Broadway League invited 500 educators to Teachers’ Night on Broadway for the evening performance of “Chicago.” Actress Bebe Neuwirth, who won a Tony Award in 1997 for her role as Velma in “Chicago,” opened the performance as a special surprise. “We’d like to thank you for nurturing the next generation of Broadway,” she said, inviting teachers in the audience to stand. “This time the applause is for you.”

An additional 200 students and teachers received tickets to other shows. G. Edwin Robinson, a theater teacher at Boys and Girls HS in Brooklyn, accompanied students to “The Lion King” — a show he once worked on.

“It’s important that each student has a voice,” Robinson said, “and the arts give them that chance to express their experience.”