Live from Chelsea, it’s Saturday night!
About 150 lucky people got to see the cast of “Saturday Night Live” stage a live – untelevised – show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater last night, a week after the long-running comedy was knocked off the airwaves by the writers’ strike.
Billed as “Saturday Night Live – On Strike!” on the UCB Web site, the show was designed to raise money for crew members affected by the strike.
Guests for the sold-out 11:30 p.m. show at the West 26th Street theater included “SNL” fixtures Darrell Hammond and Fred Armisen and “Freaks and Geeks” star Samm Levine.
“It was way more intense,” said SNL star Kenan Thompson after the show. “No safety net.”
The cast performed about 15 sketches including a hip-hop game show, the fake news Weekend Update segment featuring a French man and riff on “Showtime at the Apollo.”
Thompson gave kudos to host and “Superbad” star Michael Cera.
SNL vet and UCB co-founder Amy Poehler helped organize the event, which fell on producer Lorne Michaels’ birthday.
“We are doing this to raise spirits, raise awareness and raise money for our hard-working production crews who will be having a hard holiday season if this strike continues,” Poehler said.
The writers area warring with the producers over cuts of DVD sales and internet downloads.