Slim pickin’s on Broadway when you strip out the older shows, so we saw “Mr. Saturday Night” a stage version of a movie from 1992 starring Billy Crystal (which I’ve never seen). Anyhow, this was a 3+ hour musical which showcased Billy Crystal’s versatility as comedian/actor with a halfway decent voice as supported by a professional cast (including character actor David Paymer (who also appeared in the movie.
The good news is that the show was pretty entertaining. The “other” news was that it never reached the heights of hilarity or shining personality of, say, Carol Barnett in “Moon Over Buffalo”, Hugh Jackman in “The Boy From Oz” or Kevin Klein in “Enter Laughing” (but was head and shoulders above Kate Blanchette playing in a “lost” play of Chekov that should have stayed lost).
While not as entertaining as the most recent comedies we’ve seen (“Moulin Rouge” and “The Play That Went Wrong”), it was decent enough to be worth the time to see.
The show had an eight person cast and a four piece live jazz combo, so while there were some empty seats in the theatre (so an opportunity for those who want to buy last minute discount tickets by lottery), the Netherlander Theatre is a bid house at over 1,200 seats, so they may actually be making money. The limited engagement ends on September 4th (either because that’s all they rented the theatre for or they are bleeding funds).
Not a show to be avoided - very professionally carried by the guy who, along with Steve Martin and John Leguizamo, shares the crown for most versatile funny guy now that Robin Williams is no longer around.
Jeff