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., 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.
Even the story itself – about a once-popular 1950s comedian whose career self-sabotage has left him, in the 1990s, playing the community rooms of local retirement homes – taps into the lore of such early TV legends as Jack Paar, Arthur Godfrey and Sid Caesar. It’s a familiar tale, lovingly re-told.
Sticking with the temperamental, if good-hearted, Buddy through the years are his long-suffering manager-brother Stan , devoted wife Elaine , and, to a lesser extent, daughter Susan , who, at 40 and still finding her way, has never quite gotten over dad’s career-first negligence. New to Buddy World is agent Annie Wells , who gets stuck with the has-been by her higher-ups and sets about plotting a classic showbiz comeback. Think – as Buddy himself does – George Burns inDespite Bean’s best efforts – she’s the show’s star singer – the father-daughter storyline just can’t support the weight its given, mostly because Crystal’s buddy never seems all that bad.
The pleasant score by Jason Robert Brown and Amanda Green keeps things light, putting all that much heavier a dramatic burden on a book that can’t quite carry it. Buddy’s career comeback isn’t assured – and never entirely credible, come what may – but the familial reconciliations are as predictable and welcome as a joke that always makes you laugh.
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