{"id":890410,"date":"2026-10-22T05:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T05:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/890410\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T05:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T05:38:10","slug":"860-broadway-review-billy-crystal-remembers-the-good-stuff-and-the-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/890410\/","title":{"rendered":"‘860’ Broadway Review: Billy Crystal Remembers The Good Stuff And The Bad"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBilly Crystal<\/a>\u2018s career, from his catch-a-rising-star stand-up days of the 1970s, his groundbreaking role as TV\u2019s first regular-cast gay character on the sitcom Soap and through his years as both a top Hollywood director and what many consider the greatest host in Oscar history, gets a fine, funny and emotional telling in 860<\/a>, Crystal\u2019s new solo show opening tonight on Broadway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd if the fact that it\u2019s Crystal himself performing the career retrospective that most stars don\u2019t live to see, the show quickly dissipates any notion of self-congratulations or back-patting: Crystal is the sort of comic who can infuse his material with just the right amount of self-deprecation to seem like something of an underdog in life\u2019s kennel, a pretty impressive feat given the man\u2019s charmed life.<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, charmed from the outside. Taking its title from the street address of Crystal\u2019s longtime Pacific Palisades home, where the comedian raised his two daughters with wife Janice and where, in his home office, he kept a lifetime of treasured keepsakes, 860, smoothly directed by Scott Ellis, begins in tragedy: The home was destroyed in the apocalyptic 2025 Palisades wildfires, incinerating decades-worth of career mementos, cherished childhood touchstones and the relics of a past that marked the many friendships and family moments that are a source of emotional grounding for a sentimental pack-rat like Crystal.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn fact, it\u2019s that sentimentality that goes a long way in heading off potential audience resistance. Crystal is, after all, a wealthy, heavily insured man, and a focus on the loss of stuff \u2013 none of his family or friends were injured in the blaze \u2013 could, in less skilled hands, be more than a little off-putting.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Crystal uses these lost objects the way Proust pondered a madeleine, as a vibe-inducing cue that can transport him \u2013 and, with him as our guide, us \u2013 back to the highlights of a life filled with many. And since we\u2019ve all borne witness to so many this star\u2019s transformational moments both public and private, we can\u2019t help being moved by the poignance of the nostalgia offered up from stage of the Imperial Theatre.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAvery Brunkus<\/p>\n

\n\tWith a set design by Tony winner Scott Pask that recreates Crystal\u2019s now-lost sanctum sanctorum down to the framed photos of dear friends and co-stars past, and baseball memorabilia from his own childhood mitt to equipment autographed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. Jen Schriever\u2019s lighting design makes sure we\u2019re looking at the right spot at the right time, and video work \u2013 old home movies, classic performance clips \u2013 by Hana S. Kim and Kylee Loera is emotionally transporting and plot-moving in equal measure.<\/p>\n

\n\tThose videos (along with the sound design by Dan Moses Schreier) take us right back to a past that can be terrifying (news and personal footage of the fires), hilarious (a clip from Soap reminds us of just what a jewel we had in Katherine Helmond) and heart-tugging (the moment when Crystal was briefly caught off guard by the surprise appearance of his friend Muhammad Ali onto the stage of an early HBO comedy special. Pure gold).<\/p>\n

\n\tAs helpful as all the film evidence is, Crystal, if need would ever be, could do without it: This is a performer whose early skills for mimicry and delivering a punch line have, if it\u2019s even possible, sharpened over the decades. His recreation of the career-making \u201970s routine in which he plays both parts of a ringside conversation between Ali and sportscaster-nemesis Howard Cosell is as uncanny as ever, and his recollection of an early-career spot as the opening act for Blood, Sweat and Tears works even if you\u2019ve never heard of David Clayton-Thomas or \u201cSpinning Wheel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show business highlights are here, of course. There\u2019s the \u201cYou look marvelous\u201d era of Saturday Night Live, his Hannibal Lecter Oscar-host entrance, late-night guest appearances, City Slickers, When Harry Met Sally, and even, as if to demonstrate the play\u2019s expanse, a quick mention of his film debut in Joan Rivers\u2019 dismal Rabbit Test, \u201cthe worst movie ever made,\u201d as its star recalls.<\/p>\n

\n\tLots of these career milestones are, in hindsight, bittersweet, as such memories tend to be. The 1986 Comic Relief fundraiser stirs recollections of his great friend Robin Williams and the toll of that death, and his love of baseball is inextricably tied to the father he lost as a teenager.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut no other moments in the show cut as close to the bone as the recollections of Crystal\u2019s longtime best friend, Rob Reiner. He first broaches the subject in a roundabout fashion, paying tribute to Norman Lear, the groundbreaking TV producer who saw a young Crystal perform at the Comedy Store and hired him to play the best friend of Reiner\u2019s Michael Stivic in an episode of All in the Family. Addressing Lear directly, Crystal says, \u201cYou told me, \u2018I think you two will be great together,’\u201d then adds, after a recap of This is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally, \u201cSo that\u2019s why I wanted to thank Norman Lear. Unknowingly, he made it possible to have the friend of a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCrystal, inevitably, circles back to Reiner, saying about the Palisades fire, as if warning the audience of rough times ahead, \u201c2025 was the worst year of our lives. We couldn\u2019t imagine anything worse than our house burning down. But then on December 14th, there was a phone call.\u201d In a flash, \u201cthe unimaginable became reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile 860 doesn\u2019t ignore its creator\u2019s lows, Crystal is too much the entertainer to leave the stage without some light and hope. There\u2019s a sweet moment when he, grieving the loss of his friend, recalls some inspirational words from Ali, something getting back up when you\u2019re knocked down, and the comic takes it to heart. And there are a few objects that, against all odds, survive the blaze, though by the end of 860 we know Crystal could do just fine without stuff.<\/p>\n

\n\tTitle: 860
Venue: Broadway\u2019s Imperial Theatre
Written And Performed By: Billy Crystal
Directed By: Scott Ellis
Running Time: 1 hr 35 min (no intermission)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Crystal\u2018s career, from his catch-a-rising-star stand-up days of the 1970s, his groundbreaking role as TV\u2019s first regular-cast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[373302,174474,21540,110469,236,88],"class_list":["post-890410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-373302","tag-billy-crystal","tag-broadway","tag-broadway-review","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}