Celebrity Autobiography ★★★★

Celebrity Autobiography is the first production of the 2026-2027 Broadway season, an unlikely but charming arrival for a niche show that was originally produced at the Triad Theatre before making its way around the country and eventually heading overseas to London, Edinburgh, and Sydney. It’s unlikely that creators and directors Eugene Pack and Dayle Reyfel ever envisioned that their clever brainchild would one day return to New York and land at the Shubert Theatre, mere blocks away from dramatic heavyweights like Giant and Death of a Salesman, but here it is, a delightful divertissement perfect for the coming summer months.

Initially inspired by the inanities found in Wheel of Fortune co-host Vanna White’s 1987 memoir Vanna Speaks, the concept is simple but clever: a curated collection of unintentionally hilarious excerpts from a wide range of people who are famous for their accomplishments other than writing, performed by a rotating cast of bold-face names from television, stage and film. A few pieces are performed solo, but most are duets or group mash-ups based on themes, genres and romantic chaos, where differing perspectives are given of the same event, a Rashomon of the ridiculous.

 As is the case with any comedy revue that’s got such a gleeful grab bag of content, not all the material works equally well, but because the various set-ups whiz by, the audience is never stuck on any one section of mockery for too long. The variety is impressive — Neil Sadaka one moment, Pamela Anderson the next, followed later by Celine Dion — even if some of the names likely now skew a bit old for anyone under 50, such as Eddie Fisher, Joe Namath, and Ethel Merman.