‘860’ Broadway Review: Billy Crystal Loses His Home but Not His Gift to Make Us Laugh

Billy Crystal has a thing for numbers when it comes to his one-man shows on Broadway. Back in 2004, he made his debut there with “700 Sundays,” the numeral a reference to how many weekends the young Billy spent with his father, Jack, before he passed away when the future comedy star was only 15 years old. For his follow-up one-man show, coming more than two decades later, Crystal is even more elliptic. “860,” which opened Wednesday at the Imperial Theatre, refers to the address at Chautauqua Boulevard in the Pacific Palisades that went up in flames on Jan. 7, 2025, in the Los Angeles wildfires.If you were expecting a comedy, Crystal delivers something else in the first few minutes of “860.” He puts us in the middle of that apocalypse when he and his wife, Janice, fled for their lives on that otherwise beautiful California winter’s day. The stage set, by Scott Pask, is a detailed replication of Crystal’s study at 860 Chautauqua, filled with photos, awards and other memorabilia that will soon be just that, a memory. Scott Ellis directs, and he, Pask and Crystal don’t leave that beloved study intact for long. Soon, the stage is filled with images of an inferno (brilliant video design by Hana S. Kim and Kylee Loera). The Tony Awards have nominated Ellis nine times for his direction of Broadway shows, usually musicals or big ensemble dramas like “Twelve Angry Men.” A 10th nomination for Ellis might be the charm, because “860,” despite being a one-man show, plays like a big opera without any singing. The stage at the Imperial repeatedly explodes, and it’s not just the Palisades fire that keeps us riveted. As a theater reporter, I attended the opening of “700 Sundays” on Dec. 5, 2004, at the nearby Broadhurst Theatre. Then, Crystal did something I’ve never experienced with an adult actor on Broadway. In the show’s opening moments, he sounded as if he were reading from a script. Was it Broadway debut jitters? Whatever it was, Crystal’s script for “860” and Ellis’ fast-paced direction prevent a repeat of that brief soporific kerfuffle at the top of the show. Crystal leaps head first into that Palisades fire. Losing his home at 860 is the impetus for the comedian to remember how he and Janice came to that ranch-style house, built in the 1930s. They bought it with money earned from the TV comedy series “Soap” (1977-81), and it is here that “860” goes from a disaster drama to the full-blown comedy any Crystal fan would expect. While “700 Sundays” is about Jack Crystal, “860” is all about his son Billy. This one-man show goes back even earlier than “Soap” to Dec. 1, 1969, when the U.S. Defense Department held its Vietnam Draft Lottery – “they turned it into a television special!” — and Crystal secured himself a phenomenally high number, ensuring that he would not have to fight in the war. Voila, instead of a soldier, he became a stand-up comic! Between the Palisades fire that brackets the show, “860” is a trip down memory lane, complete with lots of photos, films and videos. They show how Crystal’s hairline has vastly improved over the past 30 years ago. We also see his remarkable friendships with some of the biggest names in sports and show business. There’s Muhammad Ali, Robin Williams, Rob Reiner and Jack Nicholson, each the subject of an extended vignette where the comedy is delivered with healthy servings of schmaltz. Only Crystal’s memories of Mickey Mantle tip over into unrelieved sentimentality. No one gets to be a superstar comic like Crystal without having a massive ego that needs constant nourishment. To commemorate the nine times Crystal hosted the Oscars, “860” features the April 1990 Life magazine cover that proclaims his “genius.” Donald Trump is brutally mocked when Crystal recalls his 2023 Kennedy Center Honor. The show’s best political joke, however, comes when Crystal conjures up Williams to deliver a devastating Ronald Reagan-in-Hell howler that shocks while it brings down the house.