Buddy Young Jr. is back. Three decades ago, Billy Crystal’s character, a 70ish comic who was over the hill, was not so pleasant in “Mr. Saturday Night.” It was Crystal’s least popular movie. It was actually a downer at the time, and we thought Buddy and his pals were gone for good.

But tonight, Buddy is back, and he’s on top. Crystal himself is 74, and he’s reworked “Mr. Saturday Night” into a warm, wise, wonderful musical. Yes, it’s unexpected. But that’s what show business is, isn’t it? Talent and luck. Crystal felt there was more to Buddy than just being stuck in that movie. He was right.

Tonight, Crystal got plenty of adulation from the audience including heavyweights Steve Martin, Martin Short, Jimmy Fallon, and Tina Fey. More comics will be coming to see how Billy pulled it off. I can tell you how — with charm and lots of heart.

Not to suggest that “Mr. Saturday Night” is now G rated. Let’s say heavy PG-13. There’s a lot of toilet humor, as we used to call it, and jokes so old they have whiskers. A lot of the script is like a Friar’s Roast, with one liners, zingers, put downs and punchlines you can see coming a mile away. But Buddy is now so endearing, you’re hoping for material you’ve known all your life.

Buddy– famous way back in 1955 for a TV variety comedy show– sees his own obit card on the Emmy Awards one night in 1994, which brings his brother/former manager Stan (David Paymer, also from the movie, and very welcome) up from Florida. Once Stan realizes Buddy is alive and kicking, Buddy wants to cash in on the Emmy mistake, and winds up being interviewed by Gene Shalit on the Today Show, (Note: Shalit is still alive at age 96, I hope he can enjoy this moment.)

Buddy not only has to deal with Stan, but with his own long suffering wife Elaine (Randi Graff) and single 40 year old daughter, Susie, who blames him for her life (Shoshanna Bean). He also winds up with a new agent, a young Black woman whose name he purposely forgets all the time (played by Chasten Harmon, a real find).

The writers of the movie, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, long time disciples of Garry Marshall, are back, and with Crystal they’ve reshaped the action so it’s a little meta, inside, and heartfelt, In the movie, no one liked Buddy. In the musical, they love him begrudgingly. And that’s all it took to fix this thing up.

There are songs. They are not demanding but they are catchy. Jason Robert Brown wrote the music. Amanda Green’s lyrics do what so few musical lyrics do anymore– they move the show along while also revealing the characters’ inner thoughts. This turns out to be a very good score even when some of the tunes sound familiar.

So what’s the takeaway? This is sort of “Death of a Salesman” with music and a happy ending. I wouldn’t be surprised or unhappy if Billy Crystal won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He certainly deserves it. At 74, in good shape, this is a demanding job. Eight shows a week? No understudy, either, because without Crystal, there’s no show. (No slight to the others, but still…) “Mr. Saturday Night” is the kind of Broadway show you can recommend to anyone, and they will thank you later.

What more do you want?

PS Crystal gets to mug a little, throw in his imitations of Marlon Brando and others. He has to stop himself, I’ll bet, from blurting out “You look mahvelous” to someone on stage or in the audience. If he did say it, no one would be unhappy.

It’s a booming week on Broadway.

Sunday brought “Funny Girl” and last night “A Strange Loop” made for cutting edge material.

Tonight, Billy Crystal debuts his charming and very sweet, and funny “Mr. Saturday Night.” Who doesn’t love Billy Crystal? All his warmth and humor come out in this highly enjoyable musical. No, there is nothing “Strange” about it. Audiences are packing the Nederlander Theater to feel good and see someone they “get.” I’ll have more on this terrific show this evening.

Meantime, tomorrow night Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga open in “Macbeth.” This is a hot ticket– James Bond on stage! Plus the great Negga (already an award winning actress) is making her Broadway debut. She’s the first Black actress to play Lady Macbeth since Orson Welles’s landmark all=Black production in 1936. (Welles was always so far ahead of his time, it’s not funny.)

I’m told that it was critically important to Daniel Craig when coming back to Broadway that tickets are accessible and available to introduce theater to a new generation. So, lead producer (and Daniel’s frequent collaborator on film and theater) Barbara Broccoli and Craig worked together to create a ticket initiative called Macbeth 2022. The ticket access initiative provides opportunity for students from underserved communities in the New York area. For some of these young people, Macbeth will be their first Broadway show.

Is that all? No. “Girl from the North Country” is about to re-open for Tony consideration. This is a stunningly beautiful play with music by Bob Dylan starring Mare Winningham and Jay O. Sanders and should not be missed. I hope the Tony voters appreciate that this should have been the Best Musical of 2020.

Curtain up!

Ewwww! That’s not my critique of Paula Vogel’s tight memory play, “How I Learned to Drive”– rather the play, now having a Broadway debut after 25 years– is brilliant. It’s the people: the family.

At center, Uncle Peck and Li’l Bit (the sublime actors David Morse and Mary-Louise Parker) who originated these roles Off Broadway all those years ago. He held her in his hand as she was born, he says. He says he’s loved her every day, from that time, and when she was eleven, and he asked to unbutton her shirt as she sat on his lap. “Only if you want,” he said — and continues to say it even when he courts her with gifts and encourages her consumption of martinis. And teaches her to drive. Which becomes a structural device marking scenes but also providing a nuanced and loaded language: avoid reverse gear and idling.

That day, when Li’l Bit was eleven, was the last time she had any agency over her body. She knows it, too. She tells Uncle Peck just that, echoing the trending words of today’s “Metoo” survivors, giving the play a special poignancy. “How I Learned to Drive” traces just how easily one man’s charm can overwhelm a woman’s vulnerability, even as a mother, aunt, grandmother, grandfather note the signs of this grooming with more resignation than attention.

Johanna Day was in the original production as mother and her sister, Aunt Mary, married to Uncle Peck. Alyssa May Gold, is way too young to be a grandmother, a nice touch as much of her child bride backstory is revealed. Chris Myers plays the other male roles, including a rude classmate fixated on Li’l Bit’s bosom. If anyone has ever wondered how such transgressions occur, the stages are acted out here at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater under Mark Brokaw’s fine direction, peeled back non-chronologically, as the mind brings forward the salient painful moments.