From left, Megan Mullally, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the revival of Terrence McNally’s comedy. Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
When Terrence McNally’s showbiz satire “It’s Only a Play” opened Off Broadway in 1986, a joke about Linda Hunt kicking a man was probably pretty funny — or at least visually sly, given that all 4-foot-9 of Ms. Hunt was memorable from movies like “The Year of Living Dangerously.”
Name dropping doesn’t age well, so Mr. McNally has extensively updated “It’s Only a Play” for its run on Broadway this fall by replacing ‘80s celebrities with new ones. Like Mad Libs for a new generation, the comedy — about theater neurotics awaiting the reviews of their Broadway play at a celebrity-studded opening night party — now has Alec Baldwin delivering that kick, a line that has gone over well with audiences during preview performances. (Ms. Hunt is still plenty famous from her work on television dramas, but there’s just something about Mr. Baldwin getting into a fight.)
Even with these script changes, many jokes still depend on insider knowledge, especially Mr. McNally’s zingers about New York theater, like the Internet message board users who rip shows while they are still in previews.
To clue in everyone — and to chart the passage of stardom over the last 28 years — here’s a cheat sheet to the play, which stars Nathan Lane as a seen-it-all actor and Matthew Broderick as the anxious playwright. It opens on Thursday.
Correction: October 19, 2014
An article on Oct. 5 about Terrence McNally’s 1986 Off Broadway showbiz satire, “It’s Only a Play,” updated for a Broadway run this fall, misstated the year the comedian Joan Rivers was the punch line of a joke in an earlier production of the play. It was in the 1992 version that Rivers was said to have been mauled by a theater producer’s dog — not the 1986 production. (Arlene Francis was the punch line in the 1986 version.)