THE MIDNIGHT SHOW

A novel-in-documents tells the story of a reality-adjacent live late-night comedy show and the mystery surrounding the death of its star comedienne.

The latest from writing partners Kelly and Thorne opens with a memo from journalist Madeline Cohen to the features editor of Rolling Stone proposing a story to mark the 40th anniversary of The Midnight Show cast member Lillian Martin’s death. “This piece would consider Lillian’s life and legacy in the context of an industry that categorizes, commodifies, dismisses, and discards funny women—both at that time and pervasively today—and ultimately, how the comedy world contributed to her fall.” What follows is a compilation of transcripts from Cohen’s interviews with surviving cast members; the guys with whom she had a comedy troupe at Harvard; the other women involved with the show; the producer, Aaron Adler; Martin’s brother; and a few other people with connections to the night of Martin’s death, when she was either pushed or jumped from the Williamsburg Bridge. The oral history format works particularly well for characters with strong, memorable voices, like the sarcasm and snap of Gina Ross, who was Lillian’s best friend, or the New Age nonsense and pomposity of Bobby Everett, who had an intense and problematic romantic relationship with her. Lillian Martin herself, as amazing as everyone keeps saying she was, comes into focus less clearly, and about halfway into the book it begins to feel like we may be getting a little deeper into the weeds of an imaginary group of people than is merited. Though The Midnight Show is clearly and closely modeled on Saturday Night Live, the novel doesn’t seem to be a roman à clef as far as plot or characters go. Fortunately, about the time the reader loses patience with the complications of the troupe’s history, Madeline begins to sniff out the truth of what happened to Lillian Martin, building to a twisty and satisfying denouement.

A well executed and entertaining look at the challenges faced by women in comedy in the 1980s.