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Back in the late 1980s and early 90s, there were few bigger stars than comedian Billy Crystal. The former Soap star had captured a hot moment in moviegoer’s hearts with a string of successful (and quite good) film projects: When Harry Met Sally, The Princess Bride, Throw Momma from the Train and City Slickers. Headlining all of those gems (we’ll just table the ’88 flick Memories of Me for the purposes of space this go-around, Dear and Constant Reader) was a plum role as one of the best Oscar hosts in recent memory. It would be safe to say that this was a Golden Age for Billy Crystal and the beneficiaries were us, the audience who got to laugh along with this good natured Manhattan mensch.
Like many actors before and since who have found themselves on a role critically and commercially, Crystal eventually had garnered enough clout and box-office dough to turn around and parlay all of that good will into a pet project of his, Mr. Saturday Night. This 1992 film dealt with the life and times of one Buddy Young Jr., standup comedian extraordinaire who never quite manages to make it out of the Borscht Belt circuit. Co-written and directed by Crystal, this film was the definition of a passion project for the actor, much like The Postman was for fellow actor Kevin Costner. But, much like Costner’s folly – for The Postman found no willing recipients for the mail it was delivering – Mr. Saturday Night never found the audience it really deserved and it stood at the time as a rare misstep by the usually on-point Crystal. Time has been kinder to the film than ’92 movie audiences and critics were however, and the movie has gone on to cultivate a nice cult following over the ensuing years; which brings us to the point of my longwinded diatribe…
Per those Running Scared fanatics over at The Hollywood Reporter comes the news that Mr. Saturday Night and Billy Crystal himselfis getting an encore performance, this time courtesy of the bright lights of Broadway…
Crystal is prepping to reprise his role as Buddy Young Jr. in an upcoming stage adaptation which is primed to premiere in March of 2022. This news comes hot off the heels of a successful limited engagement for the stage iteration last month.
“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 5 hours of make-up to play him, now I just show up,” Crystal quipped in a press release announcing the new endeavor. “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.”
Always good to see a longstanding cinematic injustice given a course-correction; Vents wishes all the best to the Broadway version of Mr. Saturday Night!
