“New York is the city where the future comes to rehearse”

“New York is the city where the future comes to rehearse” is what New York City Mayor Ed Koch said at his third inaugural address on January 1, 1986.
 
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg incorrectly quoted the line at his own third inaugural address on January 1, 2010: “New York is, as Mayor Koch once famously said, ‘where the future comes to audition.’”
   
An “audition” means that the performer might or might not win the role. A “rehearsal” means that the performer has already won the role and is merely practicing before the performance. “Where the future comes to rehearse” (Koch’s words) makes more sense.
 
 
Wikipedia: Ed Koch
Edward Irving “Ed” Koch (born December 12, 1924; pronounced /ˈkɒtʃ/) was a United States Congressman from 1969 to 1977 and the Mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989.
 
2 January 1986, New York (NY) Times, “Text of the Address Delivered by Mayor Koch at His Third Inaugural,” pg. B5:
New York is a long way from being perfect. This is not a place of carefree quietude. Our city is not a tranquil refuge from reality. New York today is what it has always been: it’s the world’s No. 1 arena for genius, it’s the battleground of new ideas. New York is the city where the future comes to rehearse, where the best come to get better. We’re the leading city because we are the city of leaders. If you’re trying for the top, you cannot top New York.
 
Yes, New York is a great city but the Big Apple does not grow in the Garden of Eden. If anything, New York is the entire Book of Genesis, all the faith and furor, all the trials and triumphs, all 50 chapters rolled into five boroughs.
   
Google Books
City for Sale:
Ed Koch and the betrayal of New York
By Jack Newfield and Wayne Barrett
New York, NY: Harper & Row
1988
Pg. 20:
New York is what it has always been: it’s the world’s number-one arena for genius, it’s the battleground for new ideas. New York is the city where the future comes to rehearse, where the best come to get better. We are the leading city because we are the city of leaders.
   
New York (NY) Times
Ground Zero’s Ephemeral Elegance
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
Published: February 27, 2004
(...)
Around the perimeter of the station are white scrims made of polyester knit mesh with a fire-retardant finish. These function as billboards for memorable quotations about New York, rendered in Bodoni letters 17.3 inches high. Or, to use a typographic measure, 1,824 points.
 
They run from the flippant (“If you’re bored in New York, it’s your own fault” — Myrna Loy) to the boastful (“New York is where the future comes to audition” — Edward I. Koch) to the lyrical (“New York is perhaps the world’s greatest thoroughfare” — Walt Whitman).
 
“The quotes help make it an authentic New York place,” Mr. Gericke said. “When you’re there and you read them, you have a sense of the city and this emotional connection that people have always had to it.”
   
Google Books
1001 Greatest Things Ever Said About New York
By Christopher Joseph Sullivan
Guilford, CT: Lyons Press
2006
Pg. 177:
New York is where the future comes to audition.
—Mayor Ed Koch
 
The Daily Politics - New York Daily News
January 1, 2010 11:34 AM
Bloomberg III: Listening, Reforming Immigration, Deputy Swapping
By Elizabeth Benjamin
Mayor Bloomberg will pledge in his third inauguration speech to “listen and to lead” and to tackle tough issues - including immigration reform - “with renewed energy and without fear of failure.”
(...)
“That’s true in the arts, in science, in business - and more and more, we’ve made it true of City government. In so many areas, whatever happens, happens here first. New York is, as Mayor Koch once famously said, ‘where the future comes to audition.”