Ballet star Irina Dvorovenko, making her musical theater debut, was a delightful major attraction. Playing the Russian ballerina Vera Baronova, who ventures into a popular show, Dvorovenko demonstrated her acting as well as dancing prowess. Her entrances and haughty exits were triumphs in themselves. But it was her dancing, of course, that provided the thrills.

To see her great leg extensions in her high kicks was alone worth the price of admission. Her body movements in the “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue” number demonstrated the ease with which she could move into the Broadway-style world exemplified by this historically important show with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart and a workable if corny book by Hart and George Abbott. It is to be hoped that Dvorovenko, who has announced her impending retirement from the American Ballet Theater, will on occasion find some new venues in which to show her versatility so generously displayed in the Encores! staging.

Although “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue” is the most fabled early Balanchine creation, the title second act number from “On Your Toes” was also a delight with its mix of ballet and tap. The exuberant company stopped the show with that extravaganza at the performance I attended.

As for the other stars, Shonn Wiley as Junior Dolan, the professor with the hidden past of having been a kid dancer in a famous family vaudeville act, excelled. He was hilarious when an emergency resulted in his stepping in as a slave in a send-up of Russian classical ballet. But when he partnered Dvorovenko in “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” he rose to the occasion, looking good as well as helping the ballet star to shine.

Plot-wise, Wiley as Dolan is the romantic lead in love with his pert student Frankie Frayne, played with much appeal by Kelli Barrett, who has a strong show-biz voice. Their heartfelt duet of “There’s a Small Hotel” demonstrated why that number is so durable, even though most people have probably forgotten where it originated.

All Christine Baranski has to do is walk on stage to get applause. As the well-heeled arts patron Peggy Porterfield, she looked great in her snazzy outfit (Amy Clark was costume consultant), and made the most of some juicy lines and numbers. As for the first, when a bewildered Dolan asked whether one could love two women at the same time and still be a good man, she gave the strategic pause, and then replied, “If he’s very good.” (Huge applause). As for the second category, she delivered two zingy numbers, “The Heart is Quicker Than the Eye,” sung with Wiley, and “Too Good for the Average Man,” with Walter Bobbie, who gave a highly amusing performance as the egotistical Russian impresario Sergei Alexandrovitch.