Billy Crystal performs 'Yiddish scat' at the Tony Awards

(JTA) - "Ella Fitzgerald, wherever you are, I apologize in advance."

Billy Crystal gave this year's Tonys a jolt of Jewish shtick when he coaxed the audience into a call-and-response "Yiddish scat" routine, as part of a live performance to promote his Broadway musical, "Mr. Saturday Night."

In a good-faith mockery of Fitzgerald's own famous "scat" routine, Crystal, in character as his show's fading comedian star Buddy Young Jr., let loose on the Sunday night telecast with a series of nonsensical guttural sounds vaguely approximating Yiddish.

He then gleefully entered the audience for a bit of...