Billy Crystal starts previews of his new one-man show 860 at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre on Thursday, October 1, with opening night set for Wednesday, October 21.
Written by Billy Crystal and directed by Scott Ellis, 860 plays a strictly limited engagement at the Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th Street. It is produced by Janice Crystal, James L. Nederlander, Larry Magid and Face Productions.
The show begins with the Palisades fires, which destroyed Crystal’s home. What follows is his account of the family and the career the fire did not take — the people, the jobs and the turns of luck he has come to count as the ones that mattered, and what laughter is worth when nothing else is going right.
Marc Shaiman supplies original music and adaptations. He and Crystal have worked together since they met at Saturday Night Live in 1984, including all nine of Crystal’s Academy Awards telecasts. Sets are by Scott Pask, lighting by Jen Schriever, sound by Dan Moses Schreier, and video by Hana S. Kim and Kylee Loera. Davin De Santis is production stage manager.
Crystal made his Broadway debut in 2004 with 700 Sundays, also a solo show of his own writing, which won him a Tony Award and stood at the time as the highest-grossing non-musical in Broadway history. He returned in 2022 in Mr. Saturday Night, the musical drawn from his 1992 film, which took five Tony nominations including Best Musical and a leading actor nomination for Crystal.
The Imperial Theatre box office is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm. From October 1, when previews begin, it opens Monday to Saturday from 10am to 8pm and Sundays from noon to 6pm. Tickets are sold through Telecharge.com and by phone on 212-239-6200, and further information is at BillyCrystal860.com.
