DALLAS - Comedian Billy Crystal began a week-long run of his award-winning stage show 700 Sundays Tuesday night at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas.
I've always liked Billy Crystal on stage and film.
He has always been funny, whether talking about male-female relationships in When Harry Met Sally with Meg Ryan or talking parenting and baseball on a trail ride in City Slickers.
But, Tuesday night at the Winspear Opera House, Crystal was in his finest form with his one-man, Tony award-winning stage show 700 Sundays.
It's an examination of Crystal's life and family. It especially focuses on his father, who died when Crystal was 15 years old.
It's an emotional theater piece, hilarious and touching.
"I think those are the boundaries I always like to tiptoe through, to just do them both and the show is like that," he said of his show. "There are moments when it's just really funny and there are moments that are very powerful. And the combination, sometimes you're doing them at the same time, and that's been the great joy of doing the show is to get those moments."
And yes, Crystal does love baseball, especially Mickey Mantle. He even wrote and received an Emmy nomination for directing 61, a television film about the 1961 New York Yankees.
All during his week-long run in Dallas you can expect Crystal to talk a lot about jazz and baseball.
"When you're eight-and-one and it's a sport you can play then you go to Yankees Stadium for your first game and you see that guy," Crystal said. "Then you go, 'Oh well, that's it for me.' And it has remained that way."
Crystal won the Tony Award on Broadway for 700 Sundays. It sold out every seat for six months every night during its run on Broadway.
E-mail gcogill@wfaa.com
