Review Roundup: CELEBRITY AUTOPBIOGRAPHY On Broadway

Read the reviews for the Broadway premiere of the long-running Off-Broadway hit CELEBRITY AUTOBIOGRAPHY, the Drama Desk Award-winning comedy created by Eugene Pack.

The production features a rotating lineup of performers from television, film, theater, sports, and politics reading excerpts from celebrity memoirs live onstage. In addition to solo readings, the show incorporates ensemble “mash-ups” combining passages from multiple autobiographies into comedic scenes and exchanges.

The Monday, May 18 opening night cast included Tony Award-winner Scott Adsit, Matthew Broderick, Mario Cantone, Jeff Hiller, Jackie Hoffman, Gayle King, Andrea Martin, Bobby Moynihan, Ben Mankiewicz, Kenan Thompson, Nia Vardalos, Rita Wilson, and creators Eugene Pack and Dayle Reyfel.

The expanding roster of performers also includes Brooke Adams, Pamela Adlon, Lewis Black, Christie Brinkley, Danny Burstein, Bob Costas, Tate Donovan, Chloe Fineman, Will Forte, Gina Gershon, Kathy Griffin, Christopher Jackson, Ken Jeong, Susan Lucci, Ralph Macchio, Eric McCormack, Molly Shannon, Tony Shalhoub, Jennifer Tilly, Bruce Vilanch, Alan Zweibel, and others.

Greg Evans, Deadline: The phrases “low hanging fruit,” “hit or miss” and “luck of the draw” come to mind as one not very funny moment after another counts down to the end of the 90-minute Celebrity Autobiography, the much-staged oddity finally making its Broadway debut tonight.

Gillian Russo, New York Theatre Guide: At the Shubert Theatre on Broadway, a bit less so. The conceit of the comedy revue, developed and directed by Eugene Pack and Dayle Rayfel, is simple: celebs read bits of other celebs' memoirs that weren't meant to be funny but are, whether for being excessively detailed, oozing ego, or else just so badly written it's comical. More accurately, Celebrity Autobiography is intermittently comical, with much of the material intact from the show's Off-Broadway premiere in 2008. To those who know who Neil Sedaka and Suzanne Somers are, it may feel timeless; to those who've watched Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus mature from when they released their first memoirs as teenagers, it may feel dated.

Brian Scott Lipton, Cititour: The evening’s “coup de grace” was a brilliant treatment regarding Hollywood’s most notorious quadrangle: Debbie Reynolds, Eddie Fisher, Richard Burton, and Elizabeth Taylor. I suspect reading these actors’ books in the privacy of your home couldn’t possibly be as much fun as seeing them reenacted on stage! In the end, “Celebrity Autobiography” also serves as a cautionary tale: Future memoirists may think twice now before putting pen to paper. I immediately went home and shredded all of my scribblings. You probably should too!

Randall David Cook, The Recs: As is the case with any comedy revue that’s got such a gleeful grab bag of content, not all the material works equally well, but because the various set-ups whiz by, the audience is never stuck on any one section of mockery for too long. The variety is impressive — Neil Sadaka one moment, Pamela Anderson the next, followed later by Celine Dion — even if some of the names likely now skew a bit old for anyone under 50, such as Eddie Fisher, Joe Namath, and Ethel Merman.

David Finkle, New York Stage Review: Question: What current Broadway production has the most genuine laughs? Answer: Easy—the just-opening Celebrity Autobiography, which includes the repeated phrase, “We couldn’t make this stuff up.”

Zachary Stewart, Theatremania: The grand finale recounts the love quadrangle of Debbie Reynolds (Reyfel), Eddie Fisher (Pack), Elizabeth Taylor (Wilson), and Richard Burton (Adsit) using three different memoirs as source material. It’s fascinating to clock the contradictions, who catches whom in a lie and who reaches out first to bury the hatchet (spoiler: the subject of the memoir is always the bigger person). More than just a hilarious guilty pleasure, Celebrity Autobiography strikes at the unknowability of history, which is really just a record of the PR that sticks.

Matthew Wexler, One-Minute Critic: Unfortunately, fame is fleeting. Are Joe Namath and Neil Sedaka—successes, sure—really in today’s cultural zeitgeist? But with the right talent, it doesn’t really matter. Emmy winner Jeff Hiller took a bite out of Sandy: The Autobiography of a Star, about Annie’s four-legged bestie. Those who’ve already seen this season’s hit-or-miss Broadway pickings may find something fresh in Celebrity Autobiography. Or save your cash and enjoy a good book from your couch.

Average Rating: 61.4%