Arts & Entertainment

HBO to Air Billy Crystal's Long Beach-Themed Play

L.B. native announces taping of his autobiographical 700 Sundays.

Reminiscence of Billy Crystal’s boyhood home in Long Beach is coming to a living room near you.

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HBO will tape Crystal in his one-man autobiographical Broadway show 700 Sundays, Crystal announced after his performance of the Tony-winning show at the Imperial Theater on Saturday. HBO will film at the Jan. 3 and 4 shows.

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Crystal originally announced the taping on his Twitter account, @BillyCrystal, on Dec. 9, writing: “Added 3 @700Sundays shows jan 3,4,5 HBO taping on 3,4. Tickets available. These will be last live performances. Hope you can make it.” 

In 700 Sundays, Crystal recounts his time growing up in his family’s home at 549 E. Park Ave., the set of which features a replica of the front of the house. The act is a balance of comedy that revolves around his heartwarming stories of family gatherings and the accompanying laughter his home, along with the somber moments, as when, at age 15, Crystal lost his father to a deadly heart attack while at a bowling alley in Long Beach. The title of the show refers to the 700 Sundays that Crystal spent with his father before he died just days before President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.

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Other stories include his first public performance at a variety show at Long Beach High School when he was 14 years old, and Crystal’s famous “play” in a high school basketball game against formidable Erasmus Hall High School of Brooklyn.

The next performance of 700 Sundays is Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Imperial Theater, at 249 W. 45th St. The show runs through Jan. 5.


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