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
Review by Sam Moffitt
I can pinpoint the exact moment I became a film fan, a cinema buff, a Movie Geek if you will. It was while watching a television broadcast of Pigskin Parade, a college musical based around football, released by 20th Century Fox in 1936.
But a little background on myself first. Born in southeast Missouri in 1955 I can remember when television was a rare and exotic device. We knew a few neighbors near us in the little town I started growing up in, Hiram, Missouri who had televisions. Getting to watch it was a rare treat ,we knew a little old lady near us who had a television and she let us come over to watch shows like McKenzie’s Raiders and the Grey Ghost.
In 1959 my mother bought a television, a 19″ Motorola cabinet model. I can be sure of the year because I vividly remember the premiere episode of The Twilight Zone,...
I can pinpoint the exact moment I became a film fan, a cinema buff, a Movie Geek if you will. It was while watching a television broadcast of Pigskin Parade, a college musical based around football, released by 20th Century Fox in 1936.
But a little background on myself first. Born in southeast Missouri in 1955 I can remember when television was a rare and exotic device. We knew a few neighbors near us in the little town I started growing up in, Hiram, Missouri who had televisions. Getting to watch it was a rare treat ,we knew a little old lady near us who had a television and she let us come over to watch shows like McKenzie’s Raiders and the Grey Ghost.
In 1959 my mother bought a television, a 19″ Motorola cabinet model. I can be sure of the year because I vividly remember the premiere episode of The Twilight Zone,...
- 1/15/2013
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney threw down the gauntlet one last time tonight—and the Twitterverse was ready. The politically inclined corner of Hollywood was again hanging on every word of the candidates' third and final debate before the Nov. 6 election, this one devoted to foreign policy and how the sitting president and his challenger plan to lead the United States forward. Here's what the celebs had to say in 140 characters (or much, much more): Michelle Obama: Barack's steady leadership has made us stronger and safer than we were four years ago. That was clear tonight. –mo#ProudOfObama Bill Maher: Ok, one last try: We have fewer Andrews Sisters and Ritz Brothers...
- 10/23/2012
- E! Online
Enjoy classic silent films with live music accompaniment on October 2nd at The Way Out Club in St. Louis with Super-8 Silent Movie Madness Featuring Live Music !!!
Talented musician Linda Gurney will be bringing her keyboard and skill to play along as we screen condensed versions (average length: 17 minutes) of three famous silent films: Lon Chaney in Phantom Of The Opera, Charlie Chaplin in The Tramp, and the 1922 Vampire classic Nosferatu.
The .talkies. we.re showing October 2nd (also condensed) are: Steve Martin in The Jerk, John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr. in House Of Dracula, Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau in Fail Safe, William Shatner in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Land That Time Forgot, The Car, The Ritz Brothers in Hotel Anchovy, Vincent Price in The Conqueror Worm, Larry Semon in Weakend Driver, Mighty Joe Young, and Mel Brook.s Blazing Saddles.
Cover charge is a mere...
Talented musician Linda Gurney will be bringing her keyboard and skill to play along as we screen condensed versions (average length: 17 minutes) of three famous silent films: Lon Chaney in Phantom Of The Opera, Charlie Chaplin in The Tramp, and the 1922 Vampire classic Nosferatu.
The .talkies. we.re showing October 2nd (also condensed) are: Steve Martin in The Jerk, John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr. in House Of Dracula, Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau in Fail Safe, William Shatner in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Land That Time Forgot, The Car, The Ritz Brothers in Hotel Anchovy, Vincent Price in The Conqueror Worm, Larry Semon in Weakend Driver, Mighty Joe Young, and Mel Brook.s Blazing Saddles.
Cover charge is a mere...
- 9/28/2012
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
American entertainer and singer popular in the 1940s and 50s
The American entertainer Tony Martin, who has died aged 98, was once described as a singing tuxedo. Although he was rather a stiff actor, he was handsome and charming, with a winning, dimpled smile. What mattered most, however, was his mellifluous baritone voice, which he used softly in ballads such as To Each His Own and I Get Ideas, and powerfully in Begin the Beguine and There's No Tomorrow, all hit records in the 1940s and 50s.
He was one of the top crooners of the period with Vic Damone, Andy Williams and Dick Haymes, all of them just below Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra in esteem and popularity. According to Mel Tormé: "Tony Martin was technically the greatest singer of them all, as well as being the classiest guy around, both as an entertainer and a person."
He was...
The American entertainer Tony Martin, who has died aged 98, was once described as a singing tuxedo. Although he was rather a stiff actor, he was handsome and charming, with a winning, dimpled smile. What mattered most, however, was his mellifluous baritone voice, which he used softly in ballads such as To Each His Own and I Get Ideas, and powerfully in Begin the Beguine and There's No Tomorrow, all hit records in the 1940s and 50s.
He was one of the top crooners of the period with Vic Damone, Andy Williams and Dick Haymes, all of them just below Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra in esteem and popularity. According to Mel Tormé: "Tony Martin was technically the greatest singer of them all, as well as being the classiest guy around, both as an entertainer and a person."
He was...
- 7/31/2012
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Cinema Circus is clearly a product of the great, yet under-reported MGM peyote-poisoning of 1937—how else to explain its baffling, surreal, Technicolor, grotesque yet undeniable existence? It is a chilling documentary record of some things that were performed in front of a camera, once upon a time.
A man in a gruesome Joe E. Brown mask is helped from his leering false-face, revealing another leering false face, that of Lee Tracy, who attempts to justify what we are about to see as the realisation of a long-cherished dream, although the exorcism of a recurring nightmare would be at least as plausible.
Big top performers will trot out their tricks in brief visual bits, watched by earnestly faking-it movie "stars," few now recalled in the contemporary pantheon: Olsen & Johnson, the Ritz Brothers, Leo Carillo...
Meanwhile, more hideous outsized masks are sported, embodying movie stars too authentically famous to be roped into...
A man in a gruesome Joe E. Brown mask is helped from his leering false-face, revealing another leering false face, that of Lee Tracy, who attempts to justify what we are about to see as the realisation of a long-cherished dream, although the exorcism of a recurring nightmare would be at least as plausible.
Big top performers will trot out their tricks in brief visual bits, watched by earnestly faking-it movie "stars," few now recalled in the contemporary pantheon: Olsen & Johnson, the Ritz Brothers, Leo Carillo...
Meanwhile, more hideous outsized masks are sported, embodying movie stars too authentically famous to be roped into...
- 4/19/2012
- MUBI
Getty Images Jerry Lewis attends his 86th Birthday celebration after party at New York Friars Club on March 16, 2012 in New York City.
Comedian Jerry Lewis touted his latest project, a Broadway musical of “The Nutty Professor,” at his 86th birthday celebration Friday night in New York.
Lewis will direct, but not appear in, the adaptation of the 1963 movie, which he co-wrote, directed and starred in as Julius Kelp, a bumbling professor who invents a love potion that wears off quickly.
Comedian Jerry Lewis touted his latest project, a Broadway musical of “The Nutty Professor,” at his 86th birthday celebration Friday night in New York.
Lewis will direct, but not appear in, the adaptation of the 1963 movie, which he co-wrote, directed and starred in as Julius Kelp, a bumbling professor who invents a love potion that wears off quickly.
- 3/17/2012
- by Kathy Shwiff
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
By Lee Pfeiffer
On March 16, The Friars Club presented an 86th birthday celebration honoring Jerry Lewis. The sold-out event saw hundreds of Lewis fans packed into the fabled 92nd Street Y on Manhattan's upper East Side. The show was hosted by actor/comedian and fellow Friar Richard Belzer (Lewis is the club's "Abbot"). Belzer waxed eloquently about the impact Lewis has continued to have on generations of comedians. He then showed some truly fascinating clips from director Gregg Barson's recent documentary Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis. Then Lewis was introduced to a standing ovation. At 86 years old, there were few signs that age had taken its toll on the comedy legend. He walked a bit more cautiously and his hair was flecked with gray, but he cut a fit figure for a man of any age. Lewis and Belzer indulged in some predictable shtick, with Belzer taking most of Lewis' acid-tongued insults.
On March 16, The Friars Club presented an 86th birthday celebration honoring Jerry Lewis. The sold-out event saw hundreds of Lewis fans packed into the fabled 92nd Street Y on Manhattan's upper East Side. The show was hosted by actor/comedian and fellow Friar Richard Belzer (Lewis is the club's "Abbot"). Belzer waxed eloquently about the impact Lewis has continued to have on generations of comedians. He then showed some truly fascinating clips from director Gregg Barson's recent documentary Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis. Then Lewis was introduced to a standing ovation. At 86 years old, there were few signs that age had taken its toll on the comedy legend. He walked a bit more cautiously and his hair was flecked with gray, but he cut a fit figure for a man of any age. Lewis and Belzer indulged in some predictable shtick, with Belzer taking most of Lewis' acid-tongued insults.
- 3/17/2012
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
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