New Play Brings SNL’s First Season to Life

When NBC first aired Saturday Night in 1975, no one could have predicted the cultural impact it would have. What started as a late-night experiment quickly evolved into Saturday Night Live, a sketch comedy show that still shapes pop culture five decades later.

Now, an off-Broadway play is taking audiences back to that first season and the early days of SNL, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the chaos, creativity and characters that made TV history.

Written by Erik J. Rodriguez and Charles A. Sothers, Not Ready for Prime Time follows the original cast of SNL: Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Bill Murray, Laraine Newman and Gilda Radner, and their producer, Lorne Michaels, as they navigate their first season of the show.

The off-Broadway production is set to play at The Newman Mills Theater in New York City, running a limited engagement from October 5 to November 30. Directed by Conor Bagley, Not Ready For Prime Time will be the first stage production of the long-running sketch comedy show’s origins. Details about cast and creative team for the off-Broadway play have not been announced yet.

Not Ready for Prime Time will make its debut on stage more than a year after the movie Saturday Night, was released. The film, which was released in August 31, 2024, followed Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) and a group of young comedians and writers prepare for the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live on Oct. 11, 1975.

The play also arrives the same year SNL marked its 50th anniversary, making it a fitting tribute to the show’s legacy. In February, NBC aired the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special, which was a a three-hour television special to commemorate the 50th anniversary season. The special followed the typical format of a normal SNL episode, which includes a cold open, a monologue, live sketches, Weekend Update, a short film, commercial parodies and musical performances.

Currently, the sketch comedy TV show is on its summer break, but is set to start its 51st season sometime in early October. The cast of SNL‘s 50th season included Kenan Thompson, Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Marcello Hernandez, James Austin Johnson, Colin Jost, Michael Che, Sarah Sherman, Devon Walker, Bowen Yang, Ashley Padilla, Chloe Fineman, Emil Wakim and Jane Wickline.

Fans can now purchase tickets for Not Ready for Prime Time on the play’s official website.

Off-Broadway Returns to 1975: New Play Brings SNL’s First Season to Life first appeared on Parade on Aug 20, 2025

This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 20, 2025, where it first appeared.

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