Your Friday Video Link: Banana Ball Is Frozen! (And Wicked! And Dirty!)

I have posted before about the phenomenon of Banana Ball, a wild and wacky variation of minor league baseball which combines the game with episodes of theatricality.

Like what happened at Coors Field stadium in Denver on August 16, 2026.  

Kristen Bell surprised fans at the Savannah Bananas game in Denver with a live performance of “For the First Time in Forever” from Frozen. 

Broadway star Derek Klena joined her on the field for a medley of songs from Wicked and Dirty Dancing.

Your Friday Video Link provides a record of that performance.

That show was awesome and the Dirty Dancing lift was epic.

Here is Banana Ball Commissioner Jesse Cole discussing the work and planning that went into that performance.

And that is a wrap on this week's edition of Your Friday Video Link.

We're back tomorrow with Movie Time! 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another. 

Chess (The Musical and Not The Game)

As a fan of the Swedish pop group ABBA, I have a fascination with the musical Chess by ABBA composers Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus that they wote with lyricist Tim Rice.

The show is back on Broadway after nearly 4 decades and to date, the show is doing very well setting ticket sale records.

Aaron Tveit, Lea Michele and Nicholas Christopher from Chess recently appeared on The Tonight Show to  perform a medley of songs from the show.  

Wow! That looks awesome! 

Chess debuted in 1986 in London's West End and is very much a thing of it's time.  The story involves a politically charged, Cold War-era chess tournament between American and Soviet grandmasters and their love for the woman who is the manager of one player but is in love with the other.   

Chess gained noteriety outside the theater districts of London and New York City with the release of the #1 single, One Night in Bangkok performed by show star Murray Head. 

FUN FACT:  Murray Head is the older brother of  Anthony Head who was Rupert Giles in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and was Mr. Finch in the Doctor Who episode "School Reunion".  

Several attempts have been made to stage Chess in various cities all over the world with varying degrees of success.  Theater critics have generally not been kind in their reviews, usually centering on objections to the story.

What is never in doubt is love for the music of Chess which has intriqued performers for years.  Josh Groban recorded the songs of Andersson, Ulvaeus and Rice for an album and performed them in concert. 

Here is Josh Groban with Anthem from Chess.   

The Broadway revival features a new book by Danny Strong which he feels finally cracks the persistent criticisms that have plagued prior productions of Chess.

Here is a behind the scenes look with Aaron Tveit, Lea Michele and Nicholas Christopher on getting Chess up and running once more.

I'm glad to see Chess getting another lease on life on Broadway and so far, the box office has been great and early word on the show itself is that it's amazing.

Betty Boop Gets a Musical

About a week ago, I began getting videos on my Tik Tok For Your Page featuring scenes from a musical's curtain call.

That musical is Boop!

Boop! is based on Betty Boop who was the star of several animated shorts back in the 1930's. The show made its pre-Broadway debut at the CIBC Theatre in Chicago, Illinois on November 19, 2023.  

And it has now found it's way to Broadway.   

Boop! began preview performances on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on March 11, 2025, and is set for an official opening on April 5.

From just the clips I've seen, Boop! looks like a colorful spectacle and a lot of fun, something I wouldn't mind seeing myself.  

This show stars Jasmine Amy Rogers as Betty Boop and if you never heard of Jasmine before, well, she is new and originated the role in Chicago and by all accounts is fantastic in the role of Betty.  

But just who the heck is Betty Boop? 

We all know the iconagraphy, from posters to semi-truck mudflaps.  

Betty Boop began life as a cartoon produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. Her first appearance, Betty was an anthropomorphic French poodle but eventually evolved into a full on human female woman person of the opposite sex.

And how! 

A caricature of a Jazz Age flapper girl, Betty Boop just oozed sex appeal, embracing her female sensuality freely as a single free spirit. 

Until the Hays Code spoiled all our fun. 

Next up is from a 1933 Betty Boop cartoon that tells a condensed and somewhat twisted version of Snow White.  In the middle of the cartoon we have Cab Calloway singing St. James Infirmary Blues. 

The Hays office for the Motion Picture Production Code (along with the National Legion of Decency) led changes to make Betty Boop more demure and domesticated, reducing her to the role of a spinster housewife or a career girl in a longer skirt.  

There have been various efforts to revive Betty Boop in animation or as a comic strip but mostly Betty is known by her image, a doe eyed short skirted that reflexes sexiness and innocence at the same time.

I hope Boop! does well.  From the clips I've seen, I think it certainly stands a chance. And make Betty Boop popular again near a century since her debut. 

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Today's post is about live theater.

But not quite live.

I regret that Andrea and I do not get many chances to go see live performances as much as we would like. 

I think the last musical we saw live was Rent in 2022 and the last time music performance was the John Pizzarelli and Caatherine Russell show in 2023.  

So today's post about live theater is stretching things a bit.

It is a live performance of a Broadway born hit.  

That was recorded over 40 years ago.  

On on Saturday, October 28, 2023, Andrea and I watched TCM's presentation of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a live performance filmed in Los Angeles in 1981.  

Some background:  

Sweeney Todd is a 1979 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler. 

It is based on the 1970 play Sweeney Todd by Christopher Bond. 

The character of Sweeney Todd first appeared in a Victorian penny dreadful titled The String of Pearls.

Sondheim's Sweeney Todd debuted on March 1, 1979 at the Uris Theatre in New York City. It would go on to win the Tony Award for Best Musical.  

A national tour started on October 24, 1980 in Washington, D.C. and ended in August 1981 in Los Angeles, CA. It's from the run in Los Angeles that the performance was filmed and first aired on television on September 12, 1982.  This television special was nominated for and won several Primetime Emmy Awards.  

Enough of all that.

What pray tell is Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street?  

Sweeney Todd runs a barber shop in the space above a meat pie shop on Fleet Street owned and operated by the widow Mrs. Lovett. 

Sweeney slits the throats of his customers in the barber chair.

Mrs. Lovett grinds the bodies up for meat in her meat pies. 

Fun for the whole family, I must say! 

Sweeney's not just slicing throats for the fun of it. He's on a long quest for revenge against the unscrupulous Judge Turpin and his servant Beadle.  Sweeney was sent away to prison on false charges so Turpin could satisfy his lust for Sweeney's wife, Lucy. The judge raped Lucy who later took her own life. 

Sweeney and Lucy's infant daughter Johanna becomes Judge Turpin's ward and now that she has grown to womanhood, the judge demands complete control of her life and has some rather uncomfortable intentions for his young ward. 

Like mother, like daughter and just...  Ewwww!   

Hey, kids! Are we enjoying this so far? 

Before Sweeney Todd can get to Turpin and Beadle, a litany of other men fall victim to his blade to their throats and they all make their way into Mrs. Lovett's meat pies.  

Scrumdiddlydelicious! 

Andrea: I can't believe we're watching this! 

Me: Yeah, it's fun ain't it?

Andrea: What is wrong with you? 

Despite all the dark themes and, of course, the murdering and oh yeah also the cannibalism, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is almost fun. The malicious plotting and scheming and the murders are so frickin' over the top, it plays as a very dark comedy.  

But this is freakin' Stephen Sondheim we're dealing with here and as anyone who has seen Into the Woods can attest, whatever state you're in with Act 1, things will get much worse in Act 2.

Comedy will evolve into tragedy.   

People who are suppose to be dead will not be dead.

People who are miraculously alive after all will not stay that way.

People who are otherwise normal and well adjusted will be driven mad by the end. 

People who were already crazy in Act 1 will be crazier by Act 2. 

Revenge is a terrible folly and nothing good ever comes of it. 

The big deal for this particular production of  Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is the appearance of Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett who originated the role on Broadway. Yep, the dear lovely woman who gave voice to Mrs. Potts in the animated Beauty and the Beast  is the dastardly woman who grinds up human bodies into meat pies.  Lansbury steals the show in every scene she's in, a fount of positive energy as she bounces into her role in support of Sweeney's murders.  

The end of the play is virtually apocalyptic. Sweeney Todd's quest for revenge fulfilled with the deaths of his enemies but a final curse upon him as he has the blood of those he loved on his hands as well. 

Revenge is indeed a most terrible folly and nothing good comes of it for ol' Sweeney Todd.  

Andrea and I sat on our sofa for awhile, somewhat traumatized by what we just saw, a performance of live theater that reached across space and time to gob smack us in our living room. 

By the way, there is a movie version of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.  I've actually seen parts of it. It might be awhile before I can bring myself to watch all of it. 

And that is that for this post about live theater. Maybe with some luck, Andrea and I will soon abscond from the Fortress of Ineptitude to see something actually live somewhere. 

Hopefully something fun and with fewer murders.  

Anything Goes

It's "live theatre" day here on the ol' blog thing wherein we stretch the definition of "live theatre".   

The show in question was live when cameras were aimed at it to film it when it was performed  at London's Barbican Theatre in 2021.  

Andrea and I watched this life show as part of an episode of PBS's Great Performances series that aired in 2022. 

The show is Anything Goes, a lavish production of Cole Porter & P.G. Wodehouse's classic musical, featuring a full company of over 50 including a full-sized orchestra and even 14 tap dancing sailors. 

The big attraction in this production is the lead performance of Sutton Foster, currently co-starring with Hugh Jackman on Broadway in The Music Man.  

So what exactly is the big deal with Sutton Foster? Doubtful I will get up to Broadway to see The Music Man anytime soon to answer that question but if the 2021 London production of Anything Goes is any indication, the big deal with Sutton Foster is that she is very, very good at what she does.  

The story is set on an ocean liner bound on a journey from New York to London. 

Billy Crocker is a stowaway in love with heiress Hope Harcourt, who is engaged to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. Over the course of the show, Billy will be called upon to impersonate a sailor, Lord Evelyn Oakleigh's brother and a gangster named Snake Eyes Johnson, Public Enemy #1. 

Also on board is Public Enemy #13, "Moonface" Martin who spends part of the trip impersonating a priest.  

On board for ship's entertainment is nightclub singer Reno Sweeney who also includes "evangelist" on her resume although her idea of church is a sexy and sultry performance. This is the role where Sutton Foster fires on all cylinders with razor sharp comedic time, a powerful and sensual singing voice and energetic dance routines that defy gravity. 

There's a lot of excellent performances in this production of Anything Goes but Sutton Foster shines especially bright and demonstrates why she's such a big deal on Broadway.  

Challenging Sutton for the spotlight is Robert Lindsay as "Moonface Martin" who stills sounds like a mobster even while allegedly in disguise as a priest. He fancies himself a tough guy in the mob but deep down, he's a teddy bear which is why he can't get any higher on the "Public Enemies" list than #13. 

Let's wrap up this post with Sutton Foster and the cast of Anything Goes perform the show-stopping Act 1 finale.

And if you want to see more of Anything Goes, click here for the whole show.

42nd Street

It's been a minute since I've posted about seeing any kind of live theater. The fam set forth from the Fortress of Ineptitude to see Rent this past February and that's about it. 

So I'm kind of stretching things a bit to say this post is about live theater. 

This is about a production of 42nd Street performed on London's West End at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Andrea and I watched a performance of this run that was recorded in November 2018. 

For the record, Andrea and I have seen 42nd Street  performed live before although we are hard pressed to remember exactly when or where.  We presume it was in the 1990s and most likely at the Carolina Theater in Greensboro. 

42nd Street is a 1980 stage musical based on the 1932 novel by Bradford Ropes and the subsequent 1933 Hollywood film adaptation.  The show presents a backstage look at the rehearsal process of a Broadway musical show being put on during the height of the great depression.

The show is a jukebox musical of sorts; in addition to songs from the 1933 film 42nd Street, it includes songs that Al Dubin and Harry Warren wrote for many other films at around the same time, including Gold Diggers of 1933, Roman Scandals, Dames, Gold Diggers of 1935, Go into Your Dance, Gold Diggers of 1937 and The Singing Marine. It also includes "There's a Sunny Side to Every Situation", written by Warren and Johnny Mercer for Hard to Get. A 2017 revival added the song "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", written by Warren and Dubin for Moulin Rouge.

42nd Street begins with auditions for 1933's newest show.  Pretty Lady, director Julian Marsh's latest big for epic to grace Broadway.

Peggy Sawyer, fresh off the bus from Allentown, Pennsylvania, arrives in New York City looking for her big break.  Peggy scores a spot in the chorus.  

Also on hand is Dorothy Brock, an aging diva well past her prime but she comes attached with an elderly beau with some disposable cash that Marsh really needs to launch his new show.   

Brock is still a passable singer and actor but she can't dance worth a damn so she does a lot of dramatic posing while the rest of the company dances around her.   

Besides the wealthy financier, Brock is also seeing a much younger man on the side, a doctor, which is cause for more headaches for Marsh.  

With all the hassles inherent in trying to launch a big Broadway musical in the middle of a depression and all the backstage drama, "Pretty Lady" starts to come together and the company is off to Philadelphia for out of town try outs. 

Then during a performance, a dancer accidentally bumps into Peggy who collides with Dorothy who falls and breaks her ankle. 

Dorothy Brock is down and out of the show.

Peggy Sawyer is fired.

And Julian Marsh closes down the show. They can't go on without their star.

But the cast makes the case there is someone who can perform the lead and certainly better than Dorothy Brock. 

And that person is....

Oh, you know where this is going, right?   

Julian Marsh and the gang make their case to convince Peggy Sawyer to come back to the show.

"Pretty Lady" lives to see another day! 

Peggy's journey to becoming a Broadway star is not always smooth, mostly tripped up by her self doubts.  But Julian Marsh is determined that Peggy will see this through. Her taking over the lead is crucial to the show's survival and he genuinely believes in Peggy's talent and potential.  

Hell, even Dorothy Brock comes around and confesses to Peggy Sawyer she is very good, perhaps even better than Dorothy, a major admission for a diva like Miss Brock.  

Julian Marsh is in many ways your basic go for broke ball-busting show producer type but his bullish aggressiveness is tempered by a very real concern for the cast. The success of "Pretty Lady" is not just his success but a chance for the members of the cast to have a steady pay check, a rare thing during the Depression.  Tom Lister threads the needle of portraying Julian Marsh with both power and sensitivity.   

Clare Halse as Peggy Sawyer does it all, a remarkable actress, singer and dancer whose range and strength of talent doing a lot of heavy lifting, especially in Act II.

In the role of Dorothy Brock is Bonnie Lanford who was companion Mel to the 6th and 7th Doctors on Doctor Who back in the 1980's. Langford is able to temper Dorothy's diva excesses with heart and she shows off some considerable chops as a singer.  

All in all, 42nd Street is a fun "let's put on a show" type of Broadway musical. Watching the film made from a 2018 live performance isn't quite like being there but some of the energy of live theater does come through.  

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BLOG BIDNESS

Sorry, no post for Thursday.  We'll be back on Friday.  

Rent

For the first time since May 2018, the fam and I headed out from the Fortress of Ineptitude to take in a live theater production.

It was also our first time ever venturing into the new entertainment venue in downtown Greensboro known as the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts. 

What we went to see was the national touring production of Rent, the acclaimed rock musical with music, lyrics, and book by Jonathan Larson, loosely based on Giacomo Puccini's 1896 opera La Bohème. 

It's about a group of young artists, poor, hungry and struggling to survive in Lower Manhattan's East Village in the 1980's.  Their story is told through high powered rock anthems and power ballads with energetic choreography and colorful costumes. 

But over these proceedings told through power chords and dynamic dance is an ever present darkness of imminent suffering and death. It is a cast of characters burdened and cursed by the looming shadow of HIV/AIDS.  

Two roommates—Mark, a filmmaker, and Roger, a rock musician—struggle to stay warm in an old decrepit building with a host of homeless. Mark, Roger and all the rest are dealing with loss, lost loves, lost lives and lost opportunities.

And now the loss of this old building they've come to call home.  Benny, a former friend of Mark and Roger, owns the building and has his own plan which don't involve these homeless bohemians living there.

Mark's former lover Maureen stages a protest performance on Christmas Eve but Benny padlocks the building, locking out the tenants. 

Act II takes place over the year that follows as broken relationships and death fractures the group. 

Now that is a very distilled account of the events that occur in Rent and cannot begin to describe the remarkably complex tableau of a dozen different characters trying to make things work in a world designed to not work for them. 

I can only touch base on some key moments on the play.

When Angel explodes onto the stage in full glorious drag, it is a bright and cathartic moment as she delivers an anthem of life and hope and joy ("Today 4 U"). Angel will not meet a happy end, succumbing to AIDS in the 2nd act. But all who knew and loved Angel agree that when Angel was alive, she was the most alive of all of them.

Roger is living with HIV and the survivor's guilt after his girlfriend April killed herself when she received her HIV diagnosis. Roger is desperate to write one really great song before he dies ("One Song Glory").  His depressed state makes him less than responsive when love does find him again in the form of his neighbor, Mimi, an exotic dancer and junkie ("Light My Candle"). Mimi does not look likely to survive Act II but there is a miracle moment when there is a reprieve. The clock is still ticking and time is short but time is not yet over.

Maureen is absent for most of the first act but looms large over the proceedings. Then near the end of Act I with a burst of light and the rev of a motorcycle engine, Maureen makes her overly dramatic entrance with an over the top and dreadfully earnest protest song  ("Over the Moon") that involves wacky and hilariously tacky imagery of cows jumping over the moon. Maureen pokes her head through the 4th wall to entreat the Tanger Center audience in joining her in mooing.  

And that is just scratching the surface of all the wonderful things, both heartbreaking and uplifting, that occur in this show. 

Knowing something of the story and subject of Rent, I was a bit concern that the show might be oppressively sad with an unrelenting dark tone. But there are moments for laugh out loud hilarity and an undercurrent of hope.

Though they walk in the valley of the shadow of death, Rent is not about death but about life. Life is hard and it hurts body and soul but life is also love and the glories that come from that.

Rent ends with the surviving characters under a death sentence. Other than Mark, very few of these people will live past thirty.  In the finale, in a moment of shared happiness, they resolve to enjoy whatever time they have left with each other. 

There is "no day but today".

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Some other thoughts:

There is no orchestra in a pit in front of the stage. Instead the music is presented by a house band over to the side of the stage, a keyboardist, guitarist and drummer who must be the hardest working musicians in show business. Riffing on hard rock, pop ballads and other musical styles, this band keeps going non-stop.

I was winded just climbing one flight of stairs to our seats. Meanwhile, I was amazed at performers dancing and performing acrobatics while singing. 

Unfortunately blurry pic of the Rent stage

And speaking of our seats, we were lucky in that we were dead center with the stage but we were a long way back. Despite big epic Broadway-esque production numbers, Rent is still a very intimate show that I think would be better served with closer seats.  Still, kudos to Andrea for scoring our tickets thanks to a handy dandy discount through her employer.

And thanks to our daughter Randie who made it home from college in time for us to make it to the show on time.

All in all, Rent made for a fine return to see live musical theater and I hope we get a chance to do it again real soon. 

Lobby of the Tanger Center

 

Annie Live

Thursday night, Andrea and I watched NBC's "Annie Live!", a musical based on the classic comic strip Little Orphan Annie. 

These network TV productions of live theater are a bit hit or miss in terms of quality but Andrea was particularly determined to see this one. Annie is one of her favorite musicals and she was in a production of Annie when she was a kid as one of Miss Hannigan's ragmuffin orphans. 

Well, it's not like I had anything else going on my social calendar so let's give Annie Live a whirl. 

Long story made short: a good time was had by all. 

Celina Smith as Annie had a star making turn with killer pipes for all her big numbers and a sparkling personality that makes her Annie so charming and endearing.

Celina and her ensemble of orphans delivers a take on "It's Hard Knock Life" that is just epic with energetic vocals and complex choreography that includes gymnastics. These kids are doing freaking back flips out there. And it doesn't stop there as other big ensemble pieces throughout the play incorporates gymnastics with the dancing. It's like watching a parkour version of Annie. 

Sandy is a very good dog! Annie's dog has a role and the dog hits his marks like a pro. (Andrea shared that in her "Annie", Sandy ran out into the audience for pets.) 

Taraji P. Henson as Miss Hannigan is a bit problematic. Henson rips into her role like it's a honey baked ham which is perfect for Hannigan's outsized bitterness towards her orphan charges. But Henson's full bore push into the ridiculousness of Hannigan's character undermines any sense of the sadness and threat the character is supposed to have. 

Harry Connick Jr is OK as Oliver Warbucks. Connick certainly has a very good singing voice which brings an unexpected warmth to Warbuck's otherwise gruff businessman. But his acting's a bit wooden and it's hard not be distracted by the really bad skull cap he's wearing for Warbuck's bald pate.

Nicole Scherzinger’s turn as Grace. Warbuck's assistant and unrequited love interest, is... well, graceful. Her spotlight number "We Got Annie" is a veritable ballet as Nicole spins about in a flowing yellow dress and as they say on Broadway, her legs go all the way up. 

Tituss Burgess is perfect as the smarmy, conniving Rooster Hannigan and as the nervously nebbish "Mr. Mudge" seeking to con Warbucks into believing he's Annie's father.  

I need to call out my favorite recurring bit through out Annie Live, Beard Guy! In live theater, a single actor may be used in a variety of different background or supporting roles. With his distinctive bearded face, Jacob Keith Watson kind of stands out in his wide variety of roles:

• the laundry guy who resists Mrs Hannigan’s advances
• a resident of one of Herbert Hoover’s shanty towns
• a hot dog salesman
• an advisor to President Roosevelt on the New Deal
• one of Warbuck's house staff 

It was fun to keep calling out "Hey, there's Beard Guy!" 

Because we're not watching this in a theater but instead on a television network, we had to contend with commercials. But at least some effort was made to make some of these fun.

Watching little kids play with Fisher Price musical toys to songs from Annie was cute.

There was a Wendy’s ad done in the style of a 1030's radio ad to the tune of “Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile".  Complete with brassy blonde singers in evening downs singing into vintage NBC microphones. It makes me want to see more commercials like that.

(It also flung a craving on me for Wendy's breakfast menu. Good work, Wendy's ad executives!)   

But because NBC is owned by Universal which owns Illumination which made Sing 2, there were too damn many commercials for Sing 2. I wish I wanted to see Sing 2 so I can now refuse to see it out of spite for too many commercials.  

All in all, Annie Live may be occasionally flawed but overall, it was a production filled with joy and strong performances, particularly from the lead, Celina Smith.

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We're off to the movies tomorrow as Cinema Sunday takes a look at boxing movie starring Paul Newman from the 1950's.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another.

Oh, Hello!

The lockdowns in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic have seriously impacted the institution of live theater. One of my regrets in this time of pandemic is that I and my family did not attend more live performances back in the before times. 

We've made do as best we can during the lockdown, catching the occasional recording of live shows such as Cats, Phantom of the Opera and Hamilton. 

A few months ago, my wife Andrea and I caught a show available on Netflix that defies an easy description. That show is called "Oh, Hello!" starring Nick Kroll and John Mulaney. The show on Netflix is a recording of a live production during it's run on Broadway.  

So what the hell is "Oh, Hello"?  The short answer is it's Nick Kroll and John Mulaney in grey wigs, old age make up and frumpy clothes being weird for 2 hours. 

More specifically, Mulaney is George St. Geegland, an author and playwright and has written several shows. Insert the word "unsuccessful" in front of any word in that previous sentence.

Kroll is Gil Faizon, an actor of stage, screen, television and radio. The word "unsuccessful" can be applied to Gil's career as well.  Gil has had some modest success as a stand-in model for mashed potatoes and other creamed foods so he's got that going for him.  

George and Gil are roommates in their 70s with strong New York accents, frequently mispronouncing common words and names. 

George and Gil do have one major success, a talk show called "Too Much Tuna". During the show, George and Gil interview a celebrity that they may or may not know and then end the interview by offering the guest a sandwich that has "too much tuna".   

"Oh, Hello!" is a mishmash of George and Gil poking fun at the tropes of live theater and dropping bits and pieces of random and disturbing information about themselves. 

• Gil's father reportedly "ratted out other Jews during the Holocaust."
• Gil suffers from bagel-induced cholesterol and eczema. 
• George has been married three times. All of his wives died the same way, on the same staircase. His first wife's name was Inertia Bernstein.
• George has chapped hands.

Kroll and Mulaney performed "Ohj,Hello!" on Broadway at the Lyceum Theater from September 22, 2016 to January 22, 2017.

The special on Netflix was released June 13, 2017 with Steve Martin as the "Too Much Tuna" celebrity guest. There is a bonus clip on Netflix with Michael J. Fox as the celebrity guest.  

Lea Palmieri described "Oh, Hello!" as "the most ridiculous Broadway show you watch on Netflix this year, but it's absolutely worth watching." 

"Oh, Hello!" is a strange show the defies easy description and analysis but once you get use to the quirks and rhythms of how George and Gil talk, the show is incredibly funny, at times even touching and sometimes disturbing. (George may be a psychopath.) 

If you're looking for a more straightforward comedy outing, check out any of John Mulaney's stand up specials on Netflix. But for Mulaney being really weird and perverse, "Oh, Hello!" is a very interesting show.

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John Mulaney has made no secret of his past abuse of drugs and alcohol. But as any addict will tell you, sobriety is a journey, not a destination. And it seems Mulaney's journey got sidetracked recently. He's checked himself into rehab to address a recent relapse into his addictions. 

John Mulaney is the funniest, smartest comic working on the planet today. I hope he's getting all the help he needs to help get his sobriety back on track. John is a beloved, awesome talent who deserves to be happy, healthy and safe.