Billy Crystal's 700 SUNDAYS Begins Performances on Broadway Tonight

Billy Crystal returns to Broadway tonight to kick off a 9-week-only limited engagement of his Tony Award-winning, record-breaking play 700 SUNDAYS. Opening night is set for Wednesday, November 13, 2013, at the Imperial Theatre (249 West 45th Street) and the final performance will be Sunday, January 5, 2014. 700 SUNDAYS is performed and written by Mr. Crystal with additional content byAlan Zweibel and direction by Des McAnuff.

700 SUNDAYS, an autobiographical journey, is an original two-act play in which Billy plays numerous characters that have influenced who he is today. It deals with his youth, growing up in the jazz world of Manhattan, his teenage years, and finally adulthood. It is about family and fate, loving and loss.

Billy Crystal was pronounced "The King of Broadway" by The New York Post for the Broadway debut of 700 SUNDAYS which, in its opening week on Broadway, broke the house record for highest weekly gross at the Broadhurst Theatre and then continued to top its own record every week. With a cumulative gross of over $21 million, 700 SUNDAYS set a record for the highest weekly grossing non-musical in Broadway history at that time ($1,061,689 for the week ending 5/22/05) and was one of the top ten grossing shows every single week of its run, despite playing only six performances per week.

The show won the 2005 Tony Award for Special Theatrical Experience and both the 2005 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance.

Following the Broadway production, Billy played sold-out limited engagements of 700 SUNDAYS in Toronto, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Billy then took 700 SUNDAYS to Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, where both engagements sold out upon announcement and won the 2007 Helpmann Award for Best Special Event. In 2009, Billy brought the show back to the United States with engagements in six major cities: Washington, DC; Philadelphia; Dallas; Palm Beach; Miami; and Atlanta. This fall's Broadway engagement will mark the show's first return to New York since its Broadway debut.

For group sales and information, contact Shubert Group Sales at (800) 432-7780. Single tickets will be on-sale at a later date to be announced.

700 SUNDAYS is produced by Janice Crystal, Larry Magid and Face Productions, and features scenic design by David F. Weiner, lighting design by David Lee Cuthbert, projection design by Michael Clark and sound design by Steve Canyon Kennedy.

Billy Crystal (Performer and Playwright). Tony and Emmy Award-winning comedian, actor, producer, writer and director Billy Crystal is known to audiences around the world as the star of such feature films as When Harry Met Sally..., City Slickers and Analyze This; as a cast member of NBC's Saturday Night Live; and as the acclaimed nine-time host of the Academy Awards. Crystal landed his first major television role in 1977 on the comedy series Soap, playing Jodie Dallas, one of the first openly gay characters on TV. In 1984 he hosted Saturday Night Live and a few months later joined the regular cast. His best-known SNL creations was Fernando, an unctuous talk-show host whose tagline, "You look mahvelous!" entered the popular lexicon, and Willie the Masochist who along with his partner Christopher Guest would hurt themselves and then claim, "I hate when that happens." Crystal's many feature-film credits include the buddy cop comedy Running Scared with Gregory Hines (1986), Rob Reiner's comic fairy tale The Princess Bride (1987) Danny DeVito's dark comedy Throw Momma from the Train (1987) America's Sweethearts with Julia Roberts, Mr. Saturday Night which he also co-wrote and directed, and Deconstructing Harry with Woody Allen. His breakthrough role came in 1989 when he starred opposite Meg Ryan in Reiner's When Harry Met Sally..., which became a romantic touchstone for a generation of moviegoers. He is the voice of one eyed Mike Wazowski, in Disney•Pixar's animated global blockbusters Monsters Inc. and Monsters University. As a director Crystal was nominated for both an Emmy and a Directors Guild Award for his direction of the 2001 HBO movie 61*, which told the dramatic story of the 1961 race between Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris to break Babe Ruth's single-season home-run record. The film earned 12 Emmy nominations including Best Movie made for television. Most recently, Billy was seen on the big screen opposite Bette Midler and Marisa Tomei in the Christmas 2012 family comedy hit Parental Guidance, which he also produced.In addition to hosting the Oscars nine times-most recently in 2012-Crystal has also hosted the GRAMMY Awards three times. His work as a host, writer and producer has earned him 14 Emmy nominations and five wins. Crystal won a sixth Emmy for his 1989 HBO comedy special, Billy Crystal: Midnight Train to Moscow where he became the first American comedian to perform in the then Soviet Union. A dedicated human rights advocate he has co-hosted with Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg all nine Comic Relief telethons on HBO which raised over 50 million dollars for housing and medical care to aid the nation's homeless. The recipient of the 2007 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Crystal has written five books, including Absolutely Mahvelous (1986), 700 Sundays (2005) and two children's books, I Already Know I Love You (2004) andGrandpa's Little One (2006). In his most recent book, a memoir titled Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys? Crystal offers his heartfelt and humorous observations on aging. The book, which was released in September 2013, became an instant New York Times Bestseller, and the audiobook version debuted at number one on iTunes. Crystal made his Broadway debut in 2004 with the original production of his one-man show 700 Sundays, for which he won a Tony Award. He lives in Los Angeles and New York with Janice his wife of 43 years. They have two daughters Jenny and Lindsay and four grandchildren.