The Jewish actor and comedian performed in character as the once-successful comedian Buddy Young Jr. from his Broadway musical 'Mr. Saturday Night'
June 14, 2022 13:11
Jewish actor and comedian Billy Crystal led the whole audience at the 75th annual Tony Awards in New York in singing a Yiddish scat routine with him.
Crystal, in character as the once-successful comedian Buddy Young Jr. from his Broadway musical “Mr. Saturday Night”, made nonsensical sounds resembling Yiddish from the stage, before asking the audience to repeat after him.
He then stepped off the stage at the Radio City Music Hall and approached legendary actor Samuel L. Jackson, having him sing back his incomprehensible Yiddish words, and he then went up to Lin-Manuel Miranda to scat back and forth briefly as well.
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Crystal, 74, then made his way back to the stage, but paused briefly to joke: “an old Jew’s worst nightmare: stairs!”
He then led the entire audience in a call and response routine, dividing the audience into two parts - “I’m gonna part you guys like the Red Sea,” he said.
Crystal led the delighted audience in an Oy Vey chant, with one half of the room singing “Oy” and the other half “Vey”.
Concluding his routine, Crytal told the audience: “If you like me, I’m Buddy Young Jr. If you’re not so sure, I’m Hugh Jackman,” prompting hilarity for the actor himself who was watching from the audience.
The Broadway show “Mr Saturday Night” is a stage adaption of Crystal’s 1992 film, and although it was nominated in categories including Best Musical, it did not take home any awards.
A play about an American-Jewish banking family, “The Leham Trilogy”, won the prize for Best Play, along with four other Tony Awards, and a revival of Jewish playwright Richard Greenberg’s 2002 play, “Take Me Out”, won Best Revival of a Play.