Mr. Saturday Night
Nederlander Theatre, New York City ★★★★
Mr. Saturday Night was hardly the most likely Hollywood movie to be adapted into a stage musical, said Frank Rizzo in Variety. The 1992 comedy flopped on release and is little remembered today. “But a funny thing happened on the way to Broadway.” Working with new collaborators, the film’s star, Billy Crystal, reimagined the title character, transforming septuagenarian comedian Buddy Young Jr. from a sour, selfish has-been to a figure the audience “immediately loves rather than loathes.” We now spend as much time with Buddy’s family as we do revisiting his checkered career, and the transformation has paid off in five Tony nominations, including for Best Musical. “Certainly the funniest show on Broadway in years,” the production also features “one of the most appealing scores in some time.” Though the show is not groundbreaking, “it knows what it is: a great comic vehicle with a solid though unsurprising story”—and “a little love, if not schmaltz, thrown in for good measure.”
Billy Crystal is “the kind of entertainer whose blade never dulls,” said Helen Shaw in NYMag.com. At 74, he’s also better equipped to play Buddy than he was in 1992, when he donned unconvincing old-age makeup. To me, the songs are bland and oddly placed, and the aesthetics of the production “so middle-of-the-road, they’re roadkill.” But that barely matters with Crystal in the title role, appearing both as Buddy today and, including in one video clip, Buddy in his prime. “What a master he was! What a master he is.” He “delivers each punch line like a ping-pong player hitting short; he delicately tips the ball over the net. It’s a class he’s giving, and it’s one you should go see him teach in person.”