BILLY CRYSTAL WILL STAR
IN THE NEW MUSICAL COMEDY MR. SATURDAY NIGHT
BOX OFFICE OPENS TODAY, FEB 21, 2022
PERFORMANCES BEGIN MARCH 1, 2022
OPENING NIGHT MARCH 31, 2022 AT THE NEDERLANDER THEATRE
Tickets at Mr. Saturday Night
BOOK BY BILLY CRYSTAL, LOWELL GANZ & BABALOO MANDEL
MUSIC BY JASON ROBERT BROWN
LYRICS BY AMANDA GREEN
CHOREOGRAPHY BY ELLENORE SCOTT
DIRECTED BY JOHN RANDO
MR. SATURDAY NIGHT is the story of Buddy Young Jr., an outrageous and outspoken comedian who found fame, if not fortune, in the early days of television. Now, some 40 years after his TV career flamed out, Buddy seeks one more shot at the spotlight, and while he’s at it, one last shot at fixing the family he fractured along the way.
MR. SATURDAY NIGHT will also feature Shoshana Bean (Wicked, Waitress), who will play the role of Susan Young; Tony Award winner Randy Graff (City of Angels, Les Misérables) is Elaine Young; David Paymer (City Slickers, Quiz Show, State & Main), who is recreating his Oscar-nominated performance is Buddy’s brother Stan Yankelman; Chasten Harmon (The Good Fight, Elementary, Broadway’s Hair) is agent Annie Wells.
The Broadway company will also include Jordan Gelber (Sunday in the Park with George), Brian Gonzales (Aladdin), and Mylinda Hull (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Sweet Charity).
RANDY GRAFF
SHOSHANA BEAN
DAVID PAYMER
JORDAN GELBER, BRIAN GONZALES, and MYLINDA HULL
Mr. Crystal returns to the role of Buddy Young Jr. that he portrayed in the original 1992 Columbia Pictures film of the same name, which also marked his directorial debut. The book for the stage musical is written by Crystal, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. The score for MR. SATURDAY NIGHT features music by Jason Robert Brown (Parade, The Bridges of Madison County) and lyrics by Amanda Green (Hands on a Hardbody). John Rando (Urinetown, On The Town) will direct. The production will feature choreography by Ellenore Scott (upcoming revival of Funny Girl).
The production will feature scenic design by Scott Pask, costume design by Paul Tazewell, lighting design by Kenneth Posner, video and projection design by Jeff Sugg, sound design by Kai Harada, and hair and wig design by Charles LaPointe. Music Direction is by David O. Orchestrations and arrangements are by Jason Robert Brown.
This is Billy Crystal’s return to Broadway following the hugely successful production of 700 Sundays that premiered in 2004 and had a return Broadway engagement in 2013.
Based on the Castle Rock Entertainment motion picture, Mr. Saturday Night is written by Billy Crystal, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel and based on a concept by Billy Crystal. By special arrangement with Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures.
BIOGRAPHIES:
BILLY CRYSTAL (Buddy Young Jr./Book) is a Tony and Emmy Award winning comedian, actor, producer, writer, and director. He is known around the world as the star of such feature films as When Harry Met Sally…, City Slickers and Analyze This; as a cast member of NBC’s Saturday Night Live; and the acclaimed nine-time host of the Academy Awards®. Crystal has hosted the GRAMMY® Awards three times and earned 5 Emmys for his work as host, writer and producer on both shows. Billy won his 6th Emmy for the HBO Comedy Special “Midnight Train to Moscow.” Crystal was the 2007 recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and is a NY Times best-selling author of 5 books. In 2004, Crystal made his Broadway debut with the original production of his one-man show 700 Sundays, for which he won a Tony Award. The Broadway production was released as an HBO special, garnering 4 Emmy Nominations. Crystal’s latest work includes the friendship comedy Standing Up, Falling Down opposite Ben Schwartz, as well as Here Today, for which Crystal co-wrote the screenplay, directed, produced, and starred opposite Tiffany Haddish. He has been married to Janice for 51 years and they have two children and four grandchildren.
SHOSHANA BEAN’s three independent solo albums have all topped the iTunes R&B and Blues charts in the US and UK, with her fourth and most recent project, SPECTRUM, debuting at #1 on the Billboard Jazz charts. She has sold out solo concerts around the globe, lent her voice to countless films and television shows, amassed millions of views on YouTube, and performed alongside Ariana Grande, David Foster, Postmodern Jukebox, Brian McKnight, and Michael Jackson. Shoshana is a veteran of the Broadway stage having made her debut in the original cast of Hairspray, starring as the very first replacement for Elphaba in Wicked and most recently as Jenna in Waitress. She won a IRNE Award for her performance as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl and earned a Jeff Award nomination for her portrayal of CeeCee Bloom in the pre-Broadway musical production of Beaches.
RANDY GRAFF (Elaine Young). Broadway: City of Angels (Tony/ Drama Desk Award), A Class Act (Tony/Drama Desk nominations), Fiddler on the Roof (2004), Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Moon Over Buffalo, Falsettos, High Society, Les Misérables (original Fantine). Off Broadway/Regional: The Babylon Line (Lortel Award), Motherhood Out Loud (Primary Stages), The Long Christmas Ride Home (Vineyard Theatre), and productions at Playwrights Horizons, La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe, McCarter Theater, and The Kennedy Center’s Sondheim Festival as the Countess in A Little Night Music. Ms. Graff has sung on several original Broadway cast recordings, and her own solo cd “Randy Graff Sings Cy Coleman.”
DAVID PAYMER (Stan Yankelman). After a breakout performance as ‘Ira’ in City Slickers, David Paymer’s co-star Billy Crystal wrote him into Mr. Saturday Night, earning him an Oscar nod. He has worked with prolific directors such as Spielberg (Amistad), Redford (Quiz Show), Oliver Stone (Nixon), David Mamet (State & Main), Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Franchise), and Sam Raimi (Drag Me To Hell). Paymer has since notably starred in The American President, Get Shorty, Payback, The Hurricane, In Good Company, Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt and Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Paymer can currently be seen recurring on FX in Hulu’s “Dave” as Dave Burd’s father.
CHASTEN HARMON (Annie Wells). Chasten recurs on the CBS All Access series “The Good Fight”. She previously starred in the USA series “Damnation” and had recurring roles on ABC’s “The Fix”, NBC’s “The Inbetween” and CBS’s “Elementary”. In film, Chasten can be seen opposite Adam Driver in Jim Jarmusch’ Paterson. She will next be seen starring in the independent film The Mistress. Chasten received her MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
JORDAN GELBER has appeared on Broadway in Sunday in the Park with George, Elf (Buddy), All My Sons, Avenue Q (original cast, Outer Critics Circle Award). Off-Broadway credits include Nantucket Sleigh Ride, 2000 Years, The Joke, Birth and After Birth, Avenue Q. Film: star of Dark Horse, The Kitchen, Bleed For This, Pelham, Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead, Everyday People (IFP/Gotham Award nominee), Riding in Cars With Boys, Changing Lanes. TV: Elementary, Mr. Robot, Mindhunter, Insatiable, Boardwalk Empire, Nurse Jackie, Rescue Me, Ugly Betty, every Law & Order series, The Sopranos, 100 Centre Street. BA, Stanford University; MFA, NYU Tisch Graduate Acting (Laura Pels Award). www.JordanGelber.com
BRIAN GONZALES has appeared on Broadway in Aladdin, One Man Two Guv’nors, Shrek, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His National Tour credits include Shrek, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His TV and film credits include Aladdin Live from The West End, Elementary, Law & Order.
MYLINDA HULL’s Broadway credits include The Nance, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Sweet Charity, Little Shop of Horrors, 42nd Street, Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical. Off Broadway work includes Road Show (Public Theatre); I Love You, You’re Perfect… (Westside Theatre); High Button Shoes, The New Yorkers, Merrily We Roll Along, Girl Crazy, Face The Music (all at Encores!). Regional credits include The Connector (NYSAF), Dancing at Lughnasa (Two River), Guys and Dolls (North Shore, IRNE Award). Natl Tour: Lola opposite Jerry Lewis in Damn Yankees. Television: Fosse/Verdon, Younger, Rise, The Big C, The Blacklist.
LOWELL GANZ (Book) grew up in Queens and moved to Los Angeles to begin a career writing for television shows including The Odd Couple, Happy Days, and Laverne and Shirley (which he co-created). After teaming up with Babaloo Mandel he began a screenwriting career. Their credits include Night Shift, Splash, Gung Ho, Spies Like Us, Parenthood, City Slickers, A League of Their Own, Mr. Saturday Night, Forget Paris, Multiplicity, Ed TV, and Fever Pitch. In 2019, they received the Writer’s Guild Laurel Award for Lifetime Achievement in Screenwriting. Lowell also, along with Garry Marshall, wrote a play, Wrong Turn at Lungfish, which was produced at Steppenwolf in Chicago and in Los Angeles and off-Broadway. He considers the opportunity to be part of the creative team that is bringing a new musical to Broadway a highlight of his career. Lowell lives in Los Angeles with his wife Jeanne. They have three children, five grandchildren, and he still roots for the Mets.
BABALOO MANDEL (Book) was born and raised in The Bronx, where his school grades disproved that all Jews were smart. At age 10 he was figuratively struck by lightning upon seeing the classic film Some Like It Hot. In 1972 he left New York for Hollywood to pursue his Some Like It Hot screenwriting dream. He soon landed his first writing job on the TV series M*A*S*H. He was immediately fired and his office thoroughly fumigated. Several years later, after writing jokes for comics, great pity befell him by Lowell Ganz. He worked on several TV shows co-run by Mr. Ganz, until an opportunity came along to fulfill Babaloo’s screenwriting dream. Together they have written 20 films, among them Splash, Parenthood, A League of Their Own, as well as four films (City Slickers 1 and 2, Mr. Saturday Night and Forget Paris) for the luminescent Billy Crystal (in case he reads this). In 2019 they were recipients of the Writers Guild Lifetime Achievement Award. In his personal life, Babaloo has been married for 46 years, because who else would marry him? Together he and his wife, Denise, whom he has known since she was 14, have six children and two grandchildren. As for Mr. Saturday Night, the Broadway bound musical, this goes beyond a 10-year-old boy’s dream.
JASON ROBERT BROWN (Composer/Orchestrator/Arrangements). Jason’s musicals include Songs for a New World, Parade (Best Score Tony Award), The Last Five Years (also a feature film), 13 (being released on Netflix summer 2022), The Bridges of Madison County (Best Score and Best Orchestrations Tony Award), and Honeymoon in Vegas. Jason’s albums as a singer-songwriter include Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes, How We React and How We Recover, Live in Concert with Anika Noni Rose, and this year’s Coming From Inside The House with Ariana Grande and Shoshana Bean. Upcoming: The Connector; Farewell My Concubine; concerts and Hadassah meetings. Mr. Saturday Night marks Jason’s first collaboration with any of these people and they all seem nice.
AMANDA GREEN (Lyrics) is a Tony-nominated lyricist/composer, writer, and performer. She wrote the lyrics and co-composed Hands On A Hardbody (Tony, Outer Critics Circle and two Drama Desk Award Nominations for Music & Lyrics, first woman composer to receive the Frederic Loewe Award for Outstanding Composition). In the same season she co-wrote lyrics for Bring It On (Tony nominated for Best Musical, Drama Desk Nom for Outstanding Lyrics). Additional credits include Broadway: High Fidelity (lyrics); additional book and lyrics for Tony-nominated revival of Kiss Me Kate; additional lyrics for Tony-nominated revival of On The Twentieth Century. Off Broadway: additional lyrics, Bob Carol Ted & Alice (The New Group); For The Love Of Tiffany (lyrics; NY Fringe Festival). TV: Peter Pan Live, The Kennedy Center Honors. She is currently writing the lyrics for Female Troubles, an original musical comedy she co-conceived, which she describes as “Jane Austen meets Bridesmaids but about Women’s Reproductive Freedoms.” Amanda is the first woman President of The Dramatists Guild of America.
JOHN RANDO (Director) won the 2002 Best Director Tony Award® and Outer Critics Circle Award for Urinetown the Musical. Other Broadway credits include On the Town (Tony nomination for Best Revival and Best Direction), the Tony-nominated Best Musicals A Christmas Story and The Wedding Singer, Penn & Teller, A Thousand Clowns, Dance of the Vampires, Getting the Band Back Together and Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party. Concert productions include The New Yorkers, High Button Shoes, It’s a Bird It’s a Plane It’s Superman, Annie Get Your Gun, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Damn Yankees, Face the Music, Of Thee I Sing, The Pajama Game, Do Re Mi and Strike Up the Band (all for City Center Encores!). Off-Broadway credits include Jerry Springer the Opera (The New Group), David Ives’s The Heir Apparent (Classic Stage Company – 2014 SDCF Callaway Award for Direction) and David Ives’s All in the Timing (2013 Obie Award for Direction). Internationally, John’s work can be seen in China with two original musicals: Jay Chou’s The Secret and Spirit of Life – The Jonathan Lee Musical.
ELLENORE SCOTT (Choreographer) is a choreographer, performer, and creative director. In 2022, Ellenore will choreograph the Broadway revival of Funny Girl. She has also served as the associate choreographer for Head Over Heels and King Kong on Broadway and was the assistant choreographer for the Broadway revivals of Cats and Falsettos. She choreographed Kate Hamill’s off-Broadway production of Pr8ide and Prejudice and Jeremy O. Harris’ Black Exhibition. She is the Artistic Director of ELSCO Dance, a New York contemporary dance company. As a performer she was a finalist and an All-Star on the hit television show, “So You Think You Can Dance.” Ellenore has performed on numerous television shows (Glee, Smash, The Ellen Show, The Blacklist, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, among others) and danced with Janet Jackson.
JAMES L. NEDERLANDER (Producer). President of The Nederlander Organization and son of the late James M. Nederlander. Broadway: Tina—The Tina Turner Musical, Jagged Little Pill, Moulin Rouge!, Thoughts of a Colored Man, Plaza Suite, Some Like It Hot, To Kill A Mockingbird, Oklahoma!, Tootsie, Harry Connick, Jr.–A Celebration of Cole Porter, The Band’s Visit, Mean Girls, My Fair Lady, On Your Feet!, The Humans, Meteor Shower, The Elephant Man starring Bradley Cooper, I’ll Eat You Last starring Bette Midler, Kinky Boots, Next to Normal, The 25thAnnual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Movin’ Out, as well as many others. He has also promoted hundreds of concerts, from Adele to Robin Williams, Pink Floyd, U2, The Rolling Stones and Billy Joel. Nederlander is a co-owner of the newly revived Drama Book Shop in New York.
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