Saturday Night Live had Jonathan Majors hosting last night with musical guest Taylor Swift! And with it came the "Broadway Benefit" sketch, where we got to watch old school Broadway legends Blithe and Brick (played by Bowen Yang and Cecily Strong) sing to raise money to help Broadway since the theatre industry has been struggling after being shut down for a year because of COVID.
The problem is that a couple (Kyle Mooney and Aidy Bryant) brought their small daughter Sally with them and she maybe doesn't need to be hear Blithe and Brick sing about their absolute love of cocaine. Making fun of...well, most theatre benefit concerts, the sketch has Yang and Strong singing about their use of drugs and how many they do before Tennyson (Majors) comes in through the window. He's a famous "dancer" who can't really dance anymore and thus the three continue to sing about drugs.
It's a really bad version of concerts that exist in the Broadway community today and what makes this sketch so funny is that Sally seems to absolutely love it because that is, for the most part, what happens to us theatre lovers when we're children. As someone whose shower songs were from the musical Pippin, we just love to watch inappropriate shows and help the theatre industry out.
From Blithe and Brick buying cocaine for each other or Tennyson deciding that he's going to jump out the window, the sketch is a hilarious nod to a very specific audience. One that both Yang and Strong have made clear that they love being a part of. They've played characters who have that similar "old Broadway" energy back when Jason Bateman was hosting and they did the "Outdoor Cabaret" sketch.
It's just so very theatre kid of both Yang and Strong and seeing Majors fit right in with them feels like he understands that world just as much as the rest of us. Being an actor or loving movies and television is one thing. Being a theatre kid is a completely different ball game and Yang and Strong know how to balance their love of theatre while still poking fun at it and "Broadway Benefit" is a perfect example of that.
If we could always have Yang and Strong doing Broadway sketches, that'd be nice for all of us who grew up theatre kids. Just a little treat for suffering through that life of dedication to the theatre that we love so much.