Billy Crystal Will Reprise His Role From MR. SATURDAY NIGHT in Upcoming Broadway Musical Adaptation
One of the highlights of my career was being able to meet and interview Billy Crystal for the Monsters Inc. franchise several years ago. He is one of my favorite actors, comedians, and performers and he’s got a new project coming up that I’m pretty excited about.
There’s a Broadway musical adaptation of Crystal’s 1992 comedy drama Mr. Saturday Night and the actor is set to reprise his role as Buddy Young Jr. Crystal will be joined by David Paymer, who is recreating his Oscar-nominated performance as Buddy’s brother Stan Yankelman. The show will also feature Tony Award winner Randy Graff (City of Angels) as Elaine Young and Chasten Harmon (The Good Fight) as agent Annie Wells.
Crystal, who co-wrote, directed, and produced the original film, shared in a statement, “Creating and portraying the 75-year-old comedian Buddy Young Jr. in the film of ‘Mr. Saturday Night’ was one of the highlights of my career — 30 years ago I needed five hours of make-up to play him, now I just show up. It’s been a joy to collaborate once again with the brilliant and hilarious Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, my co-writers from the film, and to be joined by the wonderful team of Jason Robert Brown, Amanda Green, Ellenore Scott and directed by John Rando. And it doesn’t get any better than sharing a stage with Randy Graff, my old friend David Paymer, and Chasten Harmon. Together we have created a truly funny and moving musical comedy. I can’t wait to come back to Broadway next year at the Nederlander Theatre.”
The show marks Crystal’s return to Broadway following the Tony Award winning production of 700 Sundays, which is an autobiographical one-man show that examined the comic’s relationship with his father.
The score for Mr. Saturday Night features music by Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown (Parade) with lyrics written by Tony Award nominee Amanda Green (Hands on a Hardbody). Tony Award winner John Rando (Urinetown) will direct.
The show is set up at the Nederlander Theatre and it will debut on March 1, 2022 and the show officially opens on March 31, 2022.