On Sarah Hughes’ night, Michelle Kwan stole the show.

Kwan, the 2002 Olympic bronze medalist, skated a flawless routine to the ballad “Fields of Gold,” earning the highest praise of the night from the crowd.

Hughes, the current Olympic gold medalist, fell twice during her performance and admitted she was a little rusty after taking time off to finish school for the year.

The performance featured a variety of entertainment for the nearly 10,000 in attendance.

Nicole Bobek, who placed third at the 2000 World Professional Championships, started things off with a routine designed around the movie “Moulin Rouge” after the whole cast skated an opening number.

Philippe Candeloro got the audience’s attention with a performance that was half skating, half strip show. Skating to “Wild Wild West,” Candeloro took off his black cowboy outfit to reveal an all-white suit. When it was all said and done, Candeloro was shirtless, drawing the loudest applause of anyone at that point.

The cheering turned into laughter as Dan Hollander took the ice. Hollander, dressed as Cartman from the TV show “South Park,” wore an oversized red winter coat and baby-blue stocking cap as he glided along the ice to Cartman’s rendition of “Come Sail Away.”

As the music switched to Aerosmith’s “Dude Looks Like a Lady,” Hollander stripped off the winter apparel to take the character of Mrs. Doubtfire and entertained the crowd with a couple back flips. The crowd also got a kick out of the large smiley face on his boxers, which peeked out from underneath the dress he was wearing.

Victor Petrenko, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist, also had the crowd laughing with his routine to “Who Let The Dogs Out.” Petrenko sported a large stuffed dog on his right arm for the performance and even playfully attacked one of the security guards towards the end of his act, drawing cheers from the crowd.

Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler kept the cross-dressing theme started by Hollander alive as the two performed to “She Ain’t Pretty.” Any hint that the female might actually be female was thrown out the window when Eisler skated while holding the much smaller Brasseur in the air by her feet.

Act two began with the most unique performance of the show. Irina Grigorian skated while hula-hooping more than 10 metal rings at one time and then taking on an oversized Slinky.

The highlight of the night came as the comedy duo Vladimir Besedin and Oleksiy Polishchuk took the ice to a round of catcalls. Clad in white and baby blue ballerina costumes, the two men floated along slowly and gracefully to “The Swan.”

They amazed the crowd as they mixed acrobatics with ice skating when the six-foot-two, 210-pound Besdin lifted the much smaller Polishchuk into various positions. At one point, Besdin held Polishchuk above himself as Polishchuk’s skates rested on Besdin’s bald head. The crowd was also amused as the two got themselves tangled up – a normal part of their routine – and in keeping with the slow nature of the act, tried several times to untangle themselves to no avail, refusing to unclasp their hands and give up. Both natives of Kiev, Ukraine, they were the 2000 American Open Champions. The current Olympic silver medalist, Timothy Goebel, gave the show a patriotic theme with his performance of “Freedom” and left the ice to a loud round of applause for his efforts.

Then it was time for Kwan, who is one of the most popular and well-known figure skaters in recent memory.

With flashbulbs popping everywhere, the California native glided along gracefully with arms outstretched. She defined eloquence with her performance and left to a standing ovation from the crowd – its loudest approval of the night.

Sarah Hughes, who surprised the skating world last February at the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, was the last individual performer of the evening.

Skating to “I’ll Never Say Goodbye,” Hughes performed several double jumps, turning in a respectable routine considering the circumstances.

“I haven’t skated in a while. I took some time off to finish 11th grade,” Hughes said. “I missed a lot of school from traveling and stuff. I had to work really hard.”

All of the skaters took the ice together for the conclusion of the two-and-a-half-hour show. Skating to “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “America,” the largely foreign cast honored America by wearing red, white and blue costumes.

The show ended with eardrum-bursting fireworks and the unveiling of several American flags overhead.

Clint Marsden, who was there to see Hughes, enjoyed the show.

Asked if Hughes’ performance was as good as he had expected, he said, “It was even better.”