From Comedy Central to Broadway, a transition you rarely see, Nick Kroll and John Mulaney are about to make their mark on the big stage with Oh Hello.
Written by both Kroll and Mulaney, Oh Hello is their longtime partially-scripted but often improvised production. The comedic pair depict characters Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland, with whom you may be familiar from “Too Much Tuna,” a segment on the Kroll Show on Comedy Central. The duo are always seen in turtlenecks, saying “Oh hello” quite frequently, and indulging one another’s often incorrect ramblings about the culture of old New York. (One of them has “bagel-induced cholesterol.”) Their notorious press conferences, wherein Kroll and Mulaney would answer every question still in character, were just as popular as the show.
Oh Hello has been to many small theaters during the pair’s U.S. tour, but they’ve been staples of Manhattan’s Cherry Lane Theatre. According to Variety, the Broadway production will fittingly be called Oh Hello on Broadway, and will be directed by Alex Timbers (who happens to be directing the Broadway production of Frozen). It’ll be performed at the Lyceum Theater, with previews starting September 23, an official opening on October 10, and a run through January 8.
The longtime friends and even longer time fools have both writing and acting credits on myriad successful comedy projects, from Saturday Night Live, to The League, to I Love You, Man and more. With such powerful and often poignant theatre on Broadway today, it wouldn’t hurt for variety’s sake to have a well-deserved laugh.