Lorne Michaels (Ian Bouillon) presents the Saturday Night Live cast in the new comedy, Not Ready for Prime Time.
The flirtation between theater and television has turned serious in recent seasons. Small-screen favorites Stranger Things and Smash were adapted for Broadway, and Schmigadoon! is on tap for next spring. Meanwhile, Off-Broadway satires of The Office and Friends have settled into long runs. Now add to the lineup Not Ready for Prime Time, a new play by Erik J. Rodriguez and Charles A. Sothers. Neither an adaptation nor a parody, this likable, free-flowing piece is more a biographical comedy, albeit an unauthorized one.
Laraine Newman (Taylor Richardson, left), Dan Aykroyd (Kristian Lugo) and Gilda Radner (Evan Rubin) rehearse a sketch featuring Ackroyd as a blow-up doll.
The show tracks the efforts of creator Lorne Michaels as well as the rise and fall of the initial cast of Saturday Night Live, striking familiar chords with those who were around a half century ago to witness SNL’s origin, and it serves as a gossipy parable on the dangers of success for those who only know Chevy Chase as a town in Maryland.
With apparently no other writing credits to their names, Rodriguez and Sothers take plenty of risks with the script, shaping their two-act into what looks and feels like a night in the confines of the famous NBC Studio 8H (perfectly rendered by scenic designers Justin & Christopher Swader). A live band is present to energize the proceedings, and the action shifts between monologues that break the fourth wall and scenes of cast members hashing it out with each other as their romances, jealousies, drinking and drug taking work against them.
Under the direction of Conor Bagley, the pacing is quick and time is fluid, with months passing by in an instant. Milestones like the airing of the premiere episode are glanced over in favor of backstage battles and the network politics in play during the mid-1970s.
John Belushi (Ryan Crout, left) and Dan Ackroyd (Lugo) find themselves on the cusp of stardom. Photographs by Russ Rowland.
Ten characters involved in at least that many story arcs means some plotlines are fleshed out more than others. Lorne Michaels (Ian Bouillon) owns much of the stage time; however, his rise to power gets lost in the mix. But one message which does come through loud and clear is that it was good to be a Caucasian male on the show. Chevy Chase (Woodrow Proctor) is the embodiment of that, earning media and Emmy accolades while his costars fume. John Belushi (Ryan Crout) bulldozes his way to the top despite almost not being hired because he was known to hate television. “That’s the most un-American thing I've ever heard in my life,” quips Michaels.
Dan Aykroyd (Kristian Lugo), presented as a somewhat slimy lothario, has no problem getting noticed, nor does Bill Murray (Nate Janis), who joins the cast after Chase leaves to pursue a film career. Meanwhile, Garrett Morris (Jared Grimes), the only Black cast member, struggles with his identity and his sanity, while the show’s female trifecta, Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman, and Jane Curtin (Evan Rubin, Taylor Richardson, Caitlin Houlahan), try to find strength in numbers despite romantic entanglements and Newman’s taste for hard drugs.
Chevy Chase (Woodrow Proctor, right) gets a lesson on power from Garrett Morris (Jared Grimes).
The actors are all engaging, though some manage more dead-on impersonations than others. At the top of the heap is Crout, who resembles Belushi quite a bit, nailing his quizzically comic facial expressions. Rubin captures Radner’s lovable grin and treats the audience to fine renditions of her classic characters, Baba Wawa and Roseanne Roseannadanna. Janis has Murray’s hangdog demeanor, if not his whimsical eyes. Proctor is as tall and debonair as Chase in his heyday, expertly handling his trademark pratfalls.
The writers turn an interesting stunt of their own when it comes to presenting actual SNL material. Serving their play while avoiding copyright infringement, several sketches are reimagined to clever effect. A “Weekend Update” segment where Morris once shouted the headlines as “News for the Hard of Hearing” is changed here to comment on racial disparity, with Morris offering “Honky-to-Jive” translation of Chase:
Chevy: Good evening, Garrett. Here’s the latest in national news ...
Garrett: Dig it, here comes something we pray ain’t got nothing to do with us.
And a 1976 spoof of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest that featured Raquel Welch as Nurse Ratched now has Michaels in that role, taking each of his cast members off to be lobotomized whenever they try to criticize their workplace conditions.
For all its longevity, SNL has, of course, seen its share of early deaths. Belushi’s overdose and Radner’s cancer are captivatingly staged with Belushi literally there one moment and gone the next, while Radner turns tragedy into farce, receiving her diagnosis in dark, slapstick fashion from Chevy Chase in a doctor’s smock.
Not Ready for Prime Time runs through Nov. 30 at the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space (511 W 52nd St.). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Monday, and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday; matinees are at 2:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday. For tickets and information, visit notreadyforprimetimeplay.com.
Playwright: Erik J. Rodriguez & Charles A. Sothers
Direction: Conor Bagley
Sets: Justin Swader & Christopher Swader
Costumes: Sarita P. Fellows
Lighting: Mextly Couzin
Sound: Liam Bellman-Sharpe
