SPENDING 'SUNDAYS' WITH BILLY INTIMATE STAGE SHOW REVEALS THE REAL CRYSTAL, FROM YOUTH TO ADULTHOOD.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

If you think you know Billy Crystal, think again.

Sure, you've heard him crack wise and lampoon the stars on countless Oscar telecasts, romance Meg Ryan and analyze Robert De Niro.

But the Crystal you'll see on stage in his solo show ``700 Sundays'' - opening Thursday at the Wilshire Theatre - is nothing like the quick-witted celebrity roaster that the world has become accustomed to sharing an inside joke with whenever the Oscars or Comic Relief needs a visible face.

In fact, its ruefulness is precisely the draw of ``700 Sundays,'' says Shirley Fishman, associate artistic director at the La Jolla Playhouse, where an early version of ``700 Sundays'' was developed in mid-2004.

``You can read People and Us and Vanity Fair and Esquire ... but you never really know that person. You think you do, but you don't,'' says Fishman. ``It's extraordinary that Billy shared some of his most personal and emotional experiences. He has shared his family with us and we loved him. So it was a Billy Crystal we didn't know.''

In ``700 Sundays,'' the audience is literally in Billy Crystal's boyhood living room, re-experiencing the former ``Soap'' star's early years and journeying with him into adulthood.

``Audiences think about their own families, and they change places with me. I feel like I'm Tony Robbins at the end of the show,'' says Crystal. ``All of these letters I get tell me the same stories and about the commonalities of having laughed, loved and lost, and that's what the show is really about. All right, you've seen me on TV and in movies, but I'm really no different than you.

``It's more fun and more meaningful than anything I've ever done. The beauty of it for me, at this point in my life, is that at 57, I have something I love doing so much that I can't let go of it yet.''

Nor are audiences tiring of Crystal waxing serious. The L.A. engagement follows sold-out runs on Broadway and in Toronto, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. Tickets for the 32 performances at the Wilshire are equally at a premium.

If we haven't heard much from Crystal in the last few years, ``700 Sundays'' is largely to blame. Since the release of ``America's Sweethearts'' and voicing wiseacre Mike Wazowski in ``Monsters, Inc.'' in 2001 (``61*,'' the HBO film he directed about the quest to break Babe Ruth's home-run record, came out the same year), Crystal has devoted much of his attention to live performance.

As his film output trailed off (his last screen appearance was the sequel ``Analyze That'' in 2002), Crystal began sporadic returns to his stand-up roots in 2001, following - in relatively quick succession - the deaths of a close friend and his mother, and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

``I kept getting punched in the back of the head, and I just started getting back up on stage,'' says Crystal, who last hosted the Oscars in 2004. ``I guess it was some form of therapy.''

Originally crafted as a two-person evening, with Crystal ``interviewed'' by ``Sit Down Comedy'' funnyman David Steinberg, Crystal's performance began to take shape. Benefits in La Jolla, Seattle and Atlanta helped Crystal work his live stage muscles again. By the time director Des McAnuff suggested that the performance lose Steinberg, Crystal was more than ready to go it alone.

Crystal showed McAnuff - the artistic director at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse - a four-page outline he had written in 1997, spinning off from the death of Crystal's father when Billy was 15. A native of Long Island, N.Y., Crystal came from a musical family. His father, Jack, was a concert promoter and record store owner; his uncle, Milt Gabler, founded Commodore Records.

Numerous characters from Crystal's family appear in ``700 Sundays.'' The great jazz singer Billie Holiday recorded her classic ``Strange Fruit'' at Commodore, but she also took Crystal to his first movie. And the actor-comedian began performing at Sunday-night jam sessions hosted by his father, specializing in one-legged tap dancing.

The title refers to the number of Sundays father and son shared before Jack Crystal's death. The set, designed by David F. Weiner, is a replica of Crystal's boyhood house, with old photographs and home movies projected onto the picture window.

``My mom passed away two days after the Seattle show, and it further convinced me that this was something I needed to do,'' says Crystal. ``I needed to talk about the hard times yet still be very funny with it and take the audience on a rather personal journey and see where it led me.''

It fell to director McAnuff and writer Alan Zweibel to reassure the comedian that his performance didn't need to be end-to-end funny to strike a chord.

``In the rehearsal phase, I kept saying, 'Is this going to be OK? Is this interesting? I need a laugh here,' '' recalls Crystal. ``But Des was great at saying, `You've got to trust it. Just trust it. This is a fascinating part.' One of the things that jazzes me the most is the fact that there are very quiet moments where I'm just sitting on this little lawn chair, and I just tell them this story. I can just feel them, and I don't have to hear the laughs.''

In December 2004, ``700 Sundays'' opened on Broadway, where it played for six nearly sold-out months. The performance won a Tony Award for best special theatrical event, and a published memoir, also titled ``700 Sundays,'' is a best seller.

Crystal might have extended his stay on Broadway further, but other forces drew him home.

``I was missing my kids and my granddaughter,'' Crystal says. ``I had only seen her for five days since the time I left. We were originally only coming in for 13 weeks, and we ended up doing 27. I took off wanting to spend the summer and get to know her.''

Yes, granddaughter. Crystal and his wife, Janice (one of the show's producers), have two daughters. Grandchild Ellen Ray is now 2 1/2, and a second grandchild is due in February. The tour of ``700 Sundays'' has been structured so Crystal can take extended time off after each city to ``fly home and be Grandpa.''

And as for that Oscars gig? Well, Crystal would have been in L.A. and his stage duties would have come to an end by March 5, when ``Munich,'' ``Crash'' and ``King Kong'' are ready for their close-ups. In fact, Crystal was asked repeatedly to take the microphone for a ninth time, but he told producer Gil Cates that he had other priorities.

``Gil was calling me as late as (just before Christmas), saying, 'Please do the show,' '' says Crystal. ``I'm so tired at the end of '700 Sundays.' I'm out there two hours and 20 minutes, sometimes a little bit longer, and the next morning I'm spent from that. I didn't want to go from that into a meeting where I'm saying, 'Give me ``Brokeback Mountain'' jokes.' It seemed so not what I wanted to do.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

700 SUNDAYS

Where: Wilshire Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday (no performances Jan. 30 through Feb. 5); through Feb. 18.

Tickets: $40 to $95. Call [phone] or www.broadwayla.org.

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3 photos

Photo: (1 -- cover -- color) WELCOME TO BILLY'S HOUSE

A very personal Crystal shares his life story in `700 Sundays'

(2 -- 3) no caption (Billy Crystal)