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Billy Crystal Leads Star-Studded Audience in ‘Yiddish Scat’ Sing-Along at Tony Awards
by Shiryn Ghermezian
Billy Crystal gets Samuel L. Jackson to sing Yiddish scat with him at the 2022 Tony Awards. Photo: Screenshot.
Jewish actor and comedian Billy Crystal got the entire audience at the 75th annual Tony Awards in New York City on Sunday night to perform a live Yiddish scat-singing routine with him.
Crystal went into character as the once-successful comedian Buddy Young Jr. from his Broadway musical “Mr. Saturday Night” and started by making a series of nonsensical sounds that resemble the Yiddish language before asking the audience at Radio City Music Hall to repeat what he was saying. The actor, 74, then stepped off stage, went into the crowd and approached actors Samuel L. Jackson and Lin-Manuel Miranda, having them recite back his fake Yiddish words and nonsense syllables.
Crystal returned to the stage, but not before remarking “an old Jew’s worst nightmare: stairs.” He ended his routine by dividing the audience into two parts — “I’m gonna part you guys like the Read Sea,” he said — and leading them in a massive “Oy vey” chant.
Crystal concluded by saying “if you like me, I’m Buddy Young Jr. If you’re not so sure, I’m Hugh Jackman,” which elicited laughter from “The Greatest Showman” star himself, who was sitting in the audience.
We’re going to stick around the #TonyAwards for more Yiddish scat performed by @MrSatNightBway‘s @BillyCrystal! pic.twitter.com/LuqEsY9C9i
— CBS (@CBS) June 13, 2022
“Mr. Saturday Night,” a stage adaptation of Crystal’s 1992 film of the same name, did not win any of the five Tony awards it was nominated for including Best Musical, which was instead given to “A Strange Loop.”
“The Lehman Trilogy,” a play about an American Jewish banking family, took home Best Play and four other Tonys while “Take Me Out,” a restaging of Jewish playwright Richard Greenberg’s 2002 play, won for Best Revival of a Play. Its lead actor, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, also took home an award.
