John Mulaney is coming back to Broadway.
The comedian will star in a new play, “All In: Comedy About Love,” staged as vignettes about relationships, marriage and heartbreak and written by the humorist Simon Rich, Mulaney’s former “Saturday Night Live” collaborator.
The production, set to feature a rotating group of actors, will be directed by Alex Timbers, who helmed Mulaney’s most recent Netflix special, “Baby J,” as well as his Broadway debut, the 2016 comedy “Oh, Hello on Broadway.”
“It’s a weird fantasy camp of things I always wanted to do with my very good friends,” Mulaney said in a video interview.
The comedian, who has two Emmy Awards for his stand-up specials “Kid Gorgeous” and “Baby J,” will lead an ensemble cast of four actors portraying pirates, the Elephant Man, dogs looking for love and other characters: Initially, Mulaney will be joined by Richard Kind (“Spin City,” “Mad About You”), Renée Elise Goldsberry (“Hamilton,” “Girls5eva”) and the “S.N.L.” alum Fred Armisen.
“We jump around between eras and countries and species, but they’re all love stories,” said Rich, a former “S.N.L.” writer who is making his Broadway debut with the play, which is adapted largely from tales that have previously been published in his 10 short story collections and in The New Yorker.
The idea for the show, which will also feature songs from the indie band the Magnetic Fields, came about when Timbers approached Rich about adapting some of his short stories for the stage. And once Mulaney, who first met Rich when they were writing partners on “S.N.L.” from 2008-11, was on board, the built-in rapport between the two proved irresistible, Timbers said.
“It was a chance to work with two heroes,” said Timbers, who won a Tony Award for his direction of “Moulin Rouge! The Musical.”
“All In” is a return to the theatrical stage for Mulaney. His performance as the elderly Upper West Sider George St. Geegland in “Oh, Hello” — a show he wrote and performed with a fellow comedian, Nick Kroll — was critically acclaimed.
“There’s an underserved audience for comedy on Broadway, and comedy that really speaks to the taste and style of today,” Timbers said, adding that the show “also has this incredible heart.”
The production, which is slated to run for 10 weeks, will begin performances on Dec. 11 at the Hudson Theater, with an opening night yet to be announced. Mulaney, Kind and Armisen are set to be in the show through Jan. 12. Goldsberry will perform through Dec. 30, with the “S.N.L.” comedian Chloe Fineman taking over from Jan. 2 through Jan. 12. Casting for the rest of the run will be announced later.
The show is being produced by Seaview and, in association with New Yorker Studios, the “S.N.L.” creator and producer Lorne Michaels, who was also a producer of the Broadway premieres of the Tom Stoppard play “Leopoldstadt” and the musical adaptation of “Mean Girls.”
“There’s something so exciting about doing something this funny around the holidays, all together,” Mulaney said. “It’s an enormously gratifying thing.”
The post John Mulaney to Star in a Broadway Comedy About Love and Marriage appeared first on New York Times.
