Billy Crystal 'Itchy' to Return to Hosting Academy Awards

If the Oscars need a host, Billy Crystal, who hosted the show eight times between 1990 and 2004, would be willing. At the 20th anniversary screening of ‘City Slickers' in Santa Monica, a fan asked Crystal a question about the Academy Awards and he admitted that he got "itchy" after his cameo during last year's ceremony.

"It got to be too much after a while and the sameness in my life," the 63-year-old comedian and actor said. "That's why I pulled back. And then when I thought I might want to do it again, they were on to other people. It's always fun. It's really hard, but maybe one or two more times? I don't know. They know where I am."

Crystal is currently working on "Monsters University," the prequel to Pixar's "Monsters Inc." He's also planning to make a film out of his Tony-winning one-man play 700 SUNDAYS. But his return to the awards last year had him thinking about hosting yet again.

"I came out last year as a surprise. It was a last-minute decision," Crystal said on Friday. "They had called and said would you do this thing and honor Bob Hope and that was a kind of cool thing to do. I said OK. I did it, and people wanted to see me, they stood up, and I couldn't talk for about a minute [while waiting for the ovation]. And, um, I got a little itchy. So we'll see what happens. I can't promise anything."

"I so appreciate that you like when we do it," he said. "And I had a good time doing them. I did eight of them. And it takes a long time. I sort of stopped doing it -- I would do it in patches -- and then fortunately I was doing other things that I wanted to do. [It takes a long time] in order to do the things we did -- and [those things] change the way a host was working on the show. We started doing the medley with Mark [Shaiman], and then those got really funny. Then we entered the films, you know, cutting into the nominated movies, and that started taking a really long time. I was working four or five months just on the Oscars."

The 84th Academy Awards will be broadcast live by ABC on Feb. 26 from the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. Brett Ratner and Don Mischer will produce the show.
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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.

"I have thought about 700 SUNDAYS at least once a day since the last time I performed it in Australia two years ago. My love for these characters from the canvas of my life and the incredible connection that I feel with audiences while sharing this personal story have made this one of the most satisfying experiences of my life. I knew I wasn't done performing it and I knew I'd like to bring the show back when the time felt right. I'm so happy to be playing six great American cities this fall," said Mr. Crystal.

In its opening week on Broadway, 700 SUNDAYS broke the house record for highest weekly gross at the Broadhurst Theatre and then continued to top its own record every week. The week ending May 22, 2005, marked the highest grossing week, not only for the Broadhurst Theatre, but also for any non-musical production in Broadway history, taking in $1,061,688 at the box office.
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.

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos

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