In 2025, Billy Crystal had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.
That January he lost the beloved house he and his family had lived in for decades when it was reduced to ashes in the Palisades Fire. And in December he lost one of his best friends, Rob Reiner, who died under horrific circumstances. The veteran performer recounts those events and many more in his new one-person show, a spiritual successor to his acclaimed 700 Sundays. 860, the title of which refers to the address of his home on Chautauqua Blvd. in Pacific Palisades, channels his anguish into a hilarious and moving evening.
Crystal, still remarkably spry and vibrant at age 78, delivers the show from a set designed by Scott Pask recreating his home office filled with a lifetime’s worth of memorabilia including numerous Emmy Awards, signed photographs, and even a wooden seat from the original Yankee Stadium. The evening begins on a suspenseful note as he vividly describes his fear as the fire gets closer and closer to his home, finally forcing him and his wife Janice to evacuate. Harrowing film footage and photographic projections enhance his suspenseful account (Hana S. Kim and Kylee Loera did the video design).
[Read Roma Torre’s ★★★★★ review here.]
It wasn’t a particularly lavish home, a three-bedroom ranch house built in 1932. But he and his wife had lived there since 1979 and it had a show business history. It was originally owned by a husband-and-wife vaudeville team, and among the friends who visited them were George Burns, Red Skelton, Will Rogers, and Harry Houdini’s widow, Bess. It even featured a small outdoor amphitheater built into a hillside where the previous owners and their guests could perform.
After a lengthy paean to his former home, Crystal segues into a digressive account of his lengthy show business career, beginning with his studying film at New York University under a very rapid-speaking Martin Scorsese before transitioning to stand-up comedy. Honing his act at Catch a Rising Star alongside the likes of Richard Lewis and Jay Leno, he got his big break when he was offered the opportunity to open a concert by the popular band Blood, Sweat & Tears. His hilarious description of the gig, which began disastrously but ended in triumph, proves one of the show’s comic highlights.
Crystal delivers fun anecdotes relating to various chapters from his lengthy career, including his star-making role as the gay Jodie Dallas in the sitcom Soap; his one-year stint at Saturday Night Live where he played such memorable characters as Fernando of “You look mahvelous!” fame; his nine times hosting the Academy Awards; and his film career that included such hits as When Harry Met Sally and City Slickers. He also talks at length about his friendships with such iconic figures as Muhammad Ali and Mickey Mantle and, more poignantly, Robin Williams and Reiner.
Throughout it all, he delivers hilarious one-liners with the expert comic timing of a veteran Borscht Belt comedian, enlivened by expressive facial expressions and body language. His gift for physical comedy is showcased in a riotous account of a psychedelic drug trip he experienced along with his older brother, culminating with a photograph that has to be seen to be believed.
Although the evening breezily directed by Scott Ellis and featuring original music by Marc Shaiman threatens to become maudlin and self-pitying when Crystal lengthily recounts his anguish upon the loss of his home and all of his possessions, he manages to sidestep the pitfall with his frequent uproarious jokes. Accompanying his account with home movies and photographs that make the loss vividly palpable, he still manages to end the evening on a joyful, uplifting note. 860 is a master class in the autobiographical blending of humor and emotion.
