MR. SATURDAY NIGHT Previews

Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!

The new musical Mr. Saturday Night begins previews tomorrow night at the Nederlander Theatre, ahead of an April 27 official opening. Based on the 1992 Oscar-nominated film of the same name, the tuner marks Billy Crystal’s Broadway musical debut at 74 years old; he leads the cast and cowrote the book with Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. Rounding out the principal cast are Randy Graff, David Paymer, Shoshana Bean, and Chasten Harmon. Mr. Saturday Night features music by Jason Robert Brown, lyrics by Amanda Green, choreography by Ellenore Scott, and direction by John Rando.

“Mr. Saturday Night is the story of Buddy Young, Jr., an outrageous and outspoken comedian who found fame in the early days of television! Now, some 40 years after he hit the top, Buddy will take one last shot at reclaiming the spotlight – and his family – one hilarious step at a time. Mr. Saturday Night is the brand-new musical comedy about being a funny man, a family man, and getting a second chance at both.”

Who’s going?

Anxiously awaiting an end-of-show report from Shirtless Jake...

This is nice to hear!

What's the score comparable to, more in the vein of Honeymoon in Vegas?

I was just informed by the nosy nelly looking over my shoulder when I was typing that I DID in fact see Randy Graff onstage in 2008 in "Damn Yankees" at Encores, so I apologize for lying.

Jordan Catalano said: "ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "This is nice to hear!

What's the score comparable to, more in the vein of Honeymoon in Vegas?"

I'm going to say no, but only because I enjoyed this one and hated the music in "Honeymoon In Vegas" (Sidenote I was gonna paraphrase just the letters but that would be "HIV" and didn't think it would be appropriate so I typed out "Honeymoon In Vegas".

"

What a fun report from one of my favorite posters! Thanks!

Well come back to NYC and I'll take you to see it.

It’s hard for me to know how to feel about this. Billy Crystal is great. He’s so funny and this show is built around him doing what he does (which he does SO well), but that doesn’t make a complete musical.

It’s hard for me to process what exactly didn’t work, and whenever I write something out I feel like I’m nitpicking, but the use of the family (Susan/Elaine/Stan) I think is what was off. Everything needed to move Buddy’s story forward is there and the needed interactions to do so serve their purpose, but these other characters’ stories aren’t being effectively told. Yes, it’s Buddy’s story, but when everything about these other character’s lives isn’t well developed, it’s hard for their interactions and conflicts with Buddy to feel natural or even real. And then when they had their songs they felt unearned.

Overall though, despite it feeling like it left a lot to be desired musical-wise, I still really enjoyed it. Billy Crystal is obviously hilarious, but everyone else was too which made it an endlessly funny show. That’s the selling point and it really delivers. Shoshana Bean gives an amazing performance and even though I didn’t love how her character or songs were used, she still managed to pull it off. I also really liked Chasten Harmon. I did enjoy most of the songs and them not being sung by amazing singers really didn’t take much away. It made me appreciate the better singers in the cast more, and think about how certain songs could sound with someone else, but it didn’t hurt the show at all.

I might’ve just gone in with the wrong expectations. I really didn’t know what to expect at all so I was excited to see how everything played out, and then stuff felt a bit scattered. But with it being really about Billy Crystal and how funny and how great of a performer he is, it fully delivers.

About 2:45.

So two musicals this season led by two non-singers? (I kid I Kid).

I loved Billy but could have done without the 3 person chorus who I did not find funny. This show is great when Billy is doing his Mr. Saturday Night routine. I laughed often as I am a fan of borscht belt humor. This did not work as a musical for me. I didn’t find any of the songs memorable. It’s also too long and hopefully they will edit out 20 minutes or so. Glad I saw it but didn’t love it.

In the original film, the character of Buddy was too egotistical & mean, making it hard for the audience to care. The film ended up flopping at the box office.

Here's a quote from a review on blu-ray.com from when the film was released on blu-ray:

"Buddy Young, Jr. repeatedly turns off audiences throughout Mr. Saturday Night, and that's the obstacle facing the film itself. With such an inherently unlikable (or at least not very likable) character at the center of the film, those who expected a loving and laugh filled tribute to show business days gone by were probably thrown for a loop by the bittersweet and often just plain bitter feel of this story."

I'm curious if they have fixed what caused the film to fail?

I haven’t seen that film since the 90s so I don’t really remember much about it but if there were issues with the characters likability, those are all fixed now.


As for DeRosa, the Playbill doesn’t even list him as a cover. In fact, there’s nobody listed as a cover for that role so I’d assume if Billy is out, the show would be canceled.

Got tickets for last nights performance via TDF! Seats were MEZ ROW C - Seat 20,22. Amazing seats!

I want to preface this with - I have never seen Mr. Saturday Night, the movie. I am also not familiar with Billy Crystals comedy style. That being said this was the worst Broadway production I have ever seen. There is nothing redeemable about this show at all. This should tell you the level of "genius comedy" we are subjected to: Biggest laugh of the night was an adult diaper joke. Second biggest laugh was a joke about a Chinese man's name being Buddy Young. All the Asian jokes need to be cut immediately - they are painful to hear. I was embarrassed to come back for the second act! Please we need to get Shoshana Bean out of there!! She is way too good for this production! None of the songs work and there is virtually ZERO plot. I would scrap all the songs and turn it into a play. Wouldn't make my worst enemy sit through this show. I have no idea who this is supposed to be for (I brought my 62 year old mom who also hated it). Will be shocked if it stays open longer than a month! RIP MR. SATURDAY NIGHT!!!

Also not many technical issues for first preview - except David Paymer's mic kept echoing and screeching (hopefully this is fixed before opening night)!

All the love to the crew of this production, I'm sure they are trying their best.

Updated On: 3/30/22 at 09:57 AM