You might feel like you’ve already seen Mr. Saturday Night the musical even if you’ve never seen Mr. Saturday Night the movie, and whether you find that comforting – Billy Crystal certainly is one of the most likable presences in all of show business – or disappointing might depend entirely on your taste for well-delivered Borsht Belt comedy.
That’s not damning with faint praise: Mr. Saturday Night, the Broadway musical opening tonight at the Nederlander Theatre based on the 1992 comedy, is, at its best, a charming showcase for the undeniable talents of both Crystal and the showbiz icons he adores. There are shout-outs galore here to the likes of Milton Berle, Harry Ritz, Jack Carter, Phil Silvers, Myron Cohen, Moms Mabley, Shecky Green and more, and a lovely visual tribute (Scott Pask designed the attractive sets) to comedy and TV pioneers from Betty White and Phyllis Diller to Richard Pryor and George Carlin.
That’s not damning with faint praise: Mr. Saturday Night, the Broadway musical opening tonight at the Nederlander Theatre based on the 1992 comedy, is, at its best, a charming showcase for the undeniable talents of both Crystal and the showbiz icons he adores. There are shout-outs galore here to the likes of Milton Berle, Harry Ritz, Jack Carter, Phil Silvers, Myron Cohen, Moms Mabley, Shecky Green and more, and a lovely visual tribute (Scott Pask designed the attractive sets) to comedy and TV pioneers from Betty White and Phyllis Diller to Richard Pryor and George Carlin.
- 4/28/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
For a while, Christopher Walken felt like "troubled guys" were the only types of roles he was being offered, and he knows when it began. "In Annie Hall, I played a suicidal guy who drives his car into traffic," he says in his matter-of-fact, stilted, utterly Walkenesque way. "Then in The Deer Hunter, which came immediately afterward, I shot myself in the head. I was playing these disturbed people. That might have been when that started." When asked if that bothered him, he plainly says, "Listen, I'm lucky."
It's a bright spring day in Manhattan,...
It's a bright spring day in Manhattan,...
- 5/13/2016
- Rollingstone.com
Myron Cohen was telling his greatest jokes to an audience of one: me. I had grown up in the 1950's and '60's watching him perform countless times on the Ed Sullivan Show, and now, in 1978, the aging stand-up comedian was sitting down in his living room, clad in a bathrobe (it was a radio interview, after all), and doing shtick. "I love telling the story about the U.S. Census Bureau conducting an actuarial survey on the Lower East Side," he began. "The guy from Washington knocks on a door, and there stands this nice little Jewish man in his 80's. He says, 'Sir, we understand you've lived here for many years. What is the death rate in this area?' The man thinks for a moment and replies, "Vell, in mine opinion... don't hold me to...
- 8/6/2010
- by Steve North
- Huffington Post
If USC professor Josh Kun had his way, the Jewish people might not be known as "the People of the Book" but rather "the People of the Record." "Jews on Vinyl," curated by Kun and Roger Bennett, of the Charles and Andrea Bronfman Foundation, is the new exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center, where you can seat yourself on a midcentury-modern couch and tap your feet to Irving Fields' 1959 recording "Bagels and Bongos"; grin while listening to a wide spectrum of albums - from Herbie Mann's "Push Push" to Barbra Streisand's "Superman"; comedy albums by Sophie Tucker, Myron Cohen and Lenny Bruce; Leo Fuchs' "Shalom Pardner"; or even the Barry Sisters singing their Yiddish rendition of "My Way." The exhibition, which ran in San Francisco for almost a year, is based on Kun and Bennett's 2008 book "And You Shall...
- 5/14/2010
- by Tom Teicholz
- Huffington Post
There is something about the Jewish way of humor and storytelling I've always found enormously appealing. I memorized material by Henny Youngman and Myron Cohen at an age when, to the best of my knowledge, I had never met a Jew. I liked the rhythm, the contradiction, the use of paradox, the anticlimax, the way word order would be adjusted to back up into a punch line. There seemed to be deep convictions about human nature hidden in gags and one-liners; a sort of rueful shrug. And the stories weren't so much about where they ended as how they got there.
The serious man is consoled by the friend who has stolen his wife
The Coen brothers' new film, "A Serious Man," tells a Jewish story. It is largely about misery and bad luck, and it's very funny. Its hero's first two words must have been oy vey. The Coens,...
The serious man is consoled by the friend who has stolen his wife
The Coen brothers' new film, "A Serious Man," tells a Jewish story. It is largely about misery and bad luck, and it's very funny. Its hero's first two words must have been oy vey. The Coens,...
- 9/14/2009
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
A joke should have the perfection of a haiku. Not one extra word. No wrong words. It should seem to have been discovered in its absolute form rather than created. The weight of the meaning should be at the end. The earlier words should prepare for the shift of the meaning. The ending must have absolute finality. It should present a world view only revealed at the last moment. Like knife-throwing, joke-telling should never be practiced except by experts.
For many laymen, a joke is a heavenly gift allowing them to monopolize your attention although they lack all ability as an entertainer. You can tell this because they start off grinning and grin the whole way through. They're so pleased with themselves. Their grins are telling you they're funny and their joke is funny. The expert knows not to betray the slightest emotion. The expert is reciting a fact. There...
For many laymen, a joke is a heavenly gift allowing them to monopolize your attention although they lack all ability as an entertainer. You can tell this because they start off grinning and grin the whole way through. They're so pleased with themselves. Their grins are telling you they're funny and their joke is funny. The expert knows not to betray the slightest emotion. The expert is reciting a fact. There...
- 4/18/2009
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
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