The title of Billy Crystal’s solo show is the address of his house on Chautauqua Boulevard in the L.A. neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, which burned to the ground along with thousands of others in the Palisades Fire of January, 2025. He had lived there with his family for 46 years.
Only about a third of “860” is directly about the fire and its aftermath – during the first five minutes and then (heavy with videos of the destruction), the last half hour or so of this 90-minute monologue.
Most of “860” is a memoir, primarily highlights from Crystal’s career as an actor and comedian. It is studded with stars. There are the celebrities with whom he formed lifelong friendships, and about whom he talks with great feeling: Muhammed Ali (who befriended Crystal after he impersonating the champ at a gala performance early in his career), Rob Reiner (after being cast to portray his best friend on “All in the Family”) and Robin Williams (with whom he formed a brotherly bond after sharing host duties with him and Whoopi Goldberg on “Comic Relief,” a charity that raised money and awareness for the homeless.)
There are the celebrities he has known for which he supplies touching and/or funny anecdotes, such as Mickey Mantle (who was a childhood idol of his), Jack Nicholson (an adult idol of his; “to me…the Babe Ruth of Hollywood” ) and Martin Scorcese (who was a professor of his at NYU.)
There are the celebrities whom he has professionally impersonated: Ali and Howard Cosell, Marlon Brando, Yul Brynner, Fernando Lamas (coining Fernando’s popular catchphrase “You look marvelous” during Crystal’s single year in the cast of Saturday Night Live )
And then there are the celebrities whose names he drops on any and all occasions, such as the ones who visited 860 Chatauqua Boulevard long before Crystal moved in, friends of the original homeowners, a married couple who were Vaudeville performers with a mind-reading act (George Burns, Red Skelton, Will Rogers and Harry Houdini’s widow); the sports figures he got autographs from; fellow comedians when he was starting out at Catch a Rising Star; fellow cast members in his TV shows and movies.
A cynical (or practical) explanation for this role call is that he felt that a 90-minute show just about the house that burned down wouldn’t be entertaining enough, and celebrity is the coin of Broadway. A less cynical interpretation is that the loss of a lifetime of “stuff” made him reflect on the life he has lived. And hasn’t the life he has lived for the past half century been as a celebrity surrounded by other celebrities? He was the host of the Oscars nine times.
One could view “860” as a sequel of sorts to his first solo show on Broadway, “700 Sundays,” which also was inspired by a loss in his life, the death of his father when Crystal was 15. But that show, which won a Tony, was a coming-of-age tale whose cast of characters focused on his relatives; his anecdotes about his Wild Uncle Berns are probably more relatable to the average theatergoer than the ones in “860” about palling with Jack Nicholson courtside or traveling on a plane to London with Henry Kissinger, who shot back his SNL catchphrase “You look marvelous.”
Still, there is a reason Crystal became a celebrity; he is good at what he does; a practiced storyteller, a funny man. He is able, in recounting an elaborate anecdote about one of his earliest gigs, as opening act to “Blood, Sweat and Tears” in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to demonstrate how he won over the restive crowd – by squeezing his face through upraised hands in hilarious imitation of a baby being born. And as amusing he is about birth, he is poignant about death, subtly, respectfully about Rob’s and Robin’s (one a victim of murder, the other of suicide, neither of which he mentions); more sentimentally in contemplation of his own. The complete destruction of his home certainly provoked delicate questions by his two grown daughters (“Do you have plans…”/ “Well, after living through the fires, cremation is out.”) But at the age of 78, Crystal concedes the topic has “an urgency that I’m so uncomfortable with.”
That doesn’t stop him from threading “860” with a string of groan-worthy one-liners, mostly about aging – maybe not dad jokes, definitely grandpa jokes: Talking about how much he and Janice, his wife of 56 years, are still in love: “Our first date was in 1966 and, if there’s a secret to it, it still feels like we’re dating. I once again have to get her home by 11… now it’s because she’s tired, and I have to pee.”
860
Imperial Theater through January 3
Running time: 95 minutes no intermission
Tickets: $84- $399
Written and performed by Billy Crystal
Directed by Scott Ellis
Original Music & Adaptations by Marc Shaiman
Scenic design by Scott Pask; lighting design by Jen Schriever; sound design by Dan Moses Schreier; video design by Hana S. Kim and Kylee Loera
Photos by Avery Brunkus
