MR. SATURDAY NIGHT Previews — Page 2

Dylan Pellagrino said: " 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. "

*Korean.

That conflation is, in fact, racist.

I don’t remember any jokes like that… Where were they?

I remember the stuff about the Chinese food and we looked at each other and were all “oh that sounds good after the show”.

Just got out of the show.

I went in expecting a middle ground Billy Crystal vanity project and that’s exactly what I got. It was like spending almost 3 hours hanging out with your grandfather - wholesome, easily digestible, a little stale, and some unexpectedly dirty jokes for good measure.

Crystal obviously plays the character well because it’s his creation and his comic timing is absolutely impeccable - his one-liners are gold. His singing voice was competent - he’s not Sinatra or anything, but he at least can carry a tune; same with David Paymer. Randy Graff was funny in the long suffering wife role and had a big “I Want” number in act 2 that had a “Roses’ Turn” gusto to it. Her other good number was a love duet with Crystal that was actually really sweet. Unfortunately, PROJECTION was a unilateral problem across the board for me and the sound design was a bit messy - they should borrow some bombast from Paradise Square.

Shoshana Bean, unfortunately, felt like wasted casting here. It’s not really a plum role and takes far too long to see any depth beyond “bitter troubled daughter of ex-comedian”.

The music felt like serviceable, easy listening elevator music with not much in the way of flair - no doubt to accommodate the limitations of the performers. I saw JRB puttering around the back during the show and taking notes. The sets also seemed to get a bit lost in the theatre and some of the intimacy it had was lost.

Overall, it was cute and worth the $60 I paid on TDF (my seat was Mezz D-18, but I had to change to Right Orch M 26 because my hips were too wide for the Mezz seat. I wouldn’t pay any more than this without feeling like I was cheated

Gosh why don't they write a showstopper for Shoshana Bean? Oof.

My best friend saw it tonight and loved it as much as I did but she said “The goy’s are gonna hate it”.

kurtal said: "KJisgroovy said: "Gosh why don't they write a showstopper for Shoshana Bean? Oof."

My knee-jerk response is "because JRB hates women", but that seems unfair."

All the women's songs in Bridges are gorgeous. Maybe thematically they couldn't find a way to give her a song? They'd be smart to give her a big powerhouse song. Get the gays and the youths in. I mean, she packed them in at Waitress. Give her something to do.

Saw this tonight (although it’s now technically the next day), and I LOVED it. IMO, this is the catchiest music JRB has written, and the whole thing cracked me up. I agree that this will be an interesting one to watch because it has a very specific audience, and it’s a Jewish audience that’s aging. Not sure how many of those would come out in a pandemic to a city that’s dealing with lots of issues, and I don’t know that many others my age would appreciate references to *SPOILERS* the Catskills, Ratner’s or Buddy Hackett *END SPOILERS.* I found them hysterical and homage to a time gone by that I adore.


Billy Crystal is the show, but I loved the moments when all the players were in it together. I thought the actor who plays his brother (his name escapes me) seems like this may be too much for him. I wanted more from Ms. Bean and Ms. Graff, and by more, I mean that their mics seemed soft. I wanted moments of power and while they had them, I didn’t think they were loud and powerful enough. The trio was a lot of fun.

The show was over at about 9:55, and Billy Crystal made a short speak about Mr. Nederlander on what would’ve been his 100th birthday. Billy mentioned that this was only their 3rd preview, so this is “as bad as it will ever be.” If this is the bad version, I highly recommend getting a ticket and checking it out for yourself!

HogansHero said: "It is well to remember that after many years of trying and many opportunities, JRB has never managed to write the score of a successful musical. One has to wonder if "success" as we use that term has been a consideration in the building of this property. My guess is that the answer is no."

Perhaps Marc Shaiman dropping out of the project was a sign.

Haven't seen it, but the scale of the show is fascinating to me for a musical comedy. 8 onstage, 6 in the band. A decade ago, this would have been "opened up" to the scale of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels or Producers. But keeping down that running cost is probably the only way Jimmy Nickelcounter & Barry Weissler can make this work financially, considering Crystal's salary and schedule.

Updated On: 4/1/22 at 12:49 AM

The first reviews made me think I could Change one of my shows for this one, but forgettable score, lead actor not a Singer and a niche humour made me realize it would be a mistake. Wondering of the Tonys will eat it Up because of Crystal.

I won the lottery for the matinee tomorrow. Has anyone else gotten tix thru the lotto? How were the seats?