Still More Theatre Saturday - Not Ready for Primetime Players

We received complimentary tickets to Not Ready for Primetime for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own.

What: Not Ready for Primetime

Where: Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space

             511 W. 52nd St.

             New York, New York 

Who: Recommended for Ages 13 and Up 

When: Through December 7, 2025

Not Ready for Primetime purports to be the story of the beginnings of Saturday Night Live. It covers the entire period of the original cast and even skips a little ahead to the deaths of John Belushi and Gilda Radner. The plot primarily emphasizes the darker elements, including drug use, infighting, and more.

There is some camaraderie among the cast members shown, particularly between the women, who were bonded over their treatment as less than or not as important as the male cast members. In fact, this show does an excellent job of depicting the rampant sexism the women of the early days of the show faced, as well as the subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle racism that Garrett Morris, the only black original cast member, faced. In fact, these are what this show does best. 

Attempts to lighten things up by interspersing the show with the cast in character, performing various skits from Saturday Night Live, fall flat.  The constant shifts in tone between comedy and drama make the show feel schizophrenic. The skits are mostly not that funny anyway, possibly due to the casting of the show, or because they are either not real Saturday Night Live skits, or if they are, they are not especially funny ones.

While the cast members don't need to be and couldn't be carbon copies of the real people they are portraying, they are mostly not at all believable as those people. The only exceptions are Jared Grimes as Garret Morris, Nate Janis as Billy Murray, and Ryan Crout as John Belushi, all of whom do a good job portraying the actors they are playing. They make this show worth seeing. Crout is particularly outstanding in his role. He does an excellent job of channeling John Belushi, especially matching Belushi's intensity and high energy level. 

 

Like the real show, this show has a live band, even though it is not a musical, and unlike the real show, there is no musical guest. The band plays before the show, at intermission, and sometimes during the show. They sound terrific and are definitely a highlight of the show. 

On the whole, if you really want to know about the history of Saturday Night Live, there are some excellent books on the subject. We recommend reading one. You definitely won't learn it from seeing this show.

And that's our view. For more about Not Ready for Primetime or to purchase tickets, visit notreadyforprimetimeplay.com.

Tune in tomorrow for this week's Sunday Scoop.

Photo credits:

All Not Ready for Primetime production photos by Russ Rowland

Images used in this post were sent by publicists, artists, and/or  PR firms and are used by permission.  Address any concerns regarding image usage here.