No institution shows more love for composers than Broadway, and it's hard to imagine Broadway showing more love than it shows for Stephen Sondheim at this 80th birthday tribute.

"Sondheim! The Birthday Concert" is an all-hands-on-deck kind of night, beautifully hosted by David Hyde Pierce.

Pierce is worth singling out in a galaxy of stars because he sets a droll, bemused and irreverent tone that reinforces the evening's unmistakable affection.

If any viewer ever considered hosts superfluous or interchangeable for an event like this, Pierce stands as conclusive evidence to the contrary.

It may or may not be true that, as the introduction to this program declares, Sondheim "revolutionized" Broadway. It's more indisputable than ever, though, after seeing and hearing this parade of his music, that he graced it with a flood of memorable tunes and numerous hit productions.

Sondheim's lyrics, and his music in general, did often nudge Broadway in a different direction from the more traditional classics of Lerner and Loewe or Irving Berlin. His songs tell complex, often dark stories about loss and regret and the cold passage of time, often within structures that take unexpected turns and never let the listener get too comfortable.

But this special, which was filmed at Avery Fisher Hall, is not a class in composition. It's music, music, music, interspersed with fond references to the man who wrote it.

Some performers are the same ones who originated the songs on Broadway, like Mandy Patinkin singing "Finishing the Hat" from "Sunday in the Park With George."

Other numbers show the music's durability, as a third or fourth generation of new young performers roll it out again. That includes some of the cast from the latest "West Side Story," who perform a highenergy "America."

"West Side Story" was composed by Leonard Bernstein, of course, but Sondheim chipped in the words.

That was in his early days, as was "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," which had a lighter tone than much of Sondheim's later work.

Ironically, Sondheim's sheer volume of music creates one of the few downsides to this special. Because there's so much turf to cover, almost any fan will be wishing for some number that isn't here just because there was too much else.

That's what happens when you sign up Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Elaine Stritch and half the rest of the Great White Way to reprise songs like "I'm Still Here," "The Glamorous Life" and "The Ladies Who Lunch."

Facilitating the sheer choreography of all this is one reason Pierce becomes the night's second star, right after the man who wrote "Send in the Clowns."

There are a lot of funny people in this Sondheim salute. There are no clowns.