Mayor Thomas Menino read a poem. City Councillor At-Large Stephen Murphy and District 5 Councillor Rob Consalvo provided a rendition of "Putting on the Ritz." And District 6 Councillor John Tobin, in a Hugh Hefner get-up, dealt some one-liners.

At the Riverside Theatre in Hyde Park as part of a "Spotlight on the Candidates" talent show, they were joined by a number of newcomers, who like Murphy, are running for City Council At-Large.

The acts included:

-- Candidate Andrew Kenneally sang Frank Sinatra's "High Hopes."

-- Tito Jackson brought some supporters on stage to add dance moves to his campaign song. One of the dancers was Rose Arruda, who is taking a leave of absence from her job as Gov. Deval Patrick's advance person and a staffer to Mrs. Patrick to work for Jackson as his campaign coordinator.

-- After quipping, "I don't believe I have a single talent that belongs on this stage," Felix Arroyo read aloud a poem about being a "son of Hyde Park," having a sports-centric childhood, and being "something [former state Rep.] Mel King and [former Boston Mayor] Ray Flynn can agree on."

-- Ayanna Pressley, who had a cold, sang "Be a Lion" from "The Wiz."

-- Consalvo offered a small tribute to the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy. A former Kennedy staffer, Consalvo brought on-stage an original print of a painting Kennedy made for his wife Vicki. Kennedy gave the print to Consalvo as a wedding gift.

-- Consalvo then returned to the stage for his dance routine with Murphy. They both donned sparkling top hats and black canes for "Putting On the Ritz" and earned the nicknames "The Bobbsey Twins" from Menino and "Gilligan and the Skipper" from Tobin.

-- Tobin read aloud some poems that mentioned Menino's "naughty list" then riffed on City Councillors At-Large Michael Flaherty and Sam Yoon's "marriage." There's already trouble at home, Tobin said, with Flaherty wanting to watch Ultimate Fight Club and Yoon wanting to listen to Mozart and do yoga. Fourth place finisher Kevin McCrea, meanwhile, was busy jumping over the Grand Canyon and hang-gliding over a volcano, he said.

-- City Council President Michael Ross could not make the talent show, because he was doing a "model shoot" for Glamour magazine, Tobin quipped.

-- Flaherty did not attend because organizers would not allow him to do a duet with Sam Yoon. Organizers said it was because Yoon was not a candidate for office.