The Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary celebration is moving from Rockefeller Center to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. On May 23, the new immersive exhibit “SNL: Ladies & Gentleman… 50 Years of Music” opens at the museum in Cleveland, Ohio.
Visitors will have the chance to walk through an elaborate recreation of the iconic Studio 8H stage; see costumes from iconic sketches like the Blues Brothers, Dick In-A-Box, and the Sweeney Sisters; revisit key musical moments by everyone from the Rolling Stones and Blondie to Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter, and even have their own virtual moment as the host of show.
“This will be the Rock Hall’s first-ever exhibit to have a robust digital companion and joins several other exhibits that include both Spanish and English translations and offer fans with auditory, visual, and sensory impairments additional options for their experience,” read a press release. “Other elements of the show such as the iconic photography bumpers and musical sketches will also be woven throughout the exhibit.”
The exhibit will be paired with a special 20-minute edit of Questlove’s new documentary Ladies & Gentleman… 50 Years of SNL Music featuring footage not seen in the version available on Peacock. In order to create the movie, the Roots drummer watched more than 900 episodes of the show. “I started to realize that there’s even more iconic sketches and music moments on the show without the artist,” he told Rolling Stone earlier this year, citing the Wayne’s World theme song, Eddie Murphy’s musical performances, and Steve Martin’s King Tut, among others. “Half of SNL‘s existence, music’s involved … I had to beg for an additional hour [of programming].”
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Other new exhibits in the museum include “Revolutionary Women in Music,“ “Bon Jovi: Forever,” and “1984,” which explores one of the most monumental years in the history of pop music. The SNL one was a massive undertaking, and the Rock Hall team is excited to share it with the world.
“Saturday Night Live has brought some of the most amazing live music performances into our living rooms for 50 years,” Rock & Roll Hall of Fame President and CEO Greg Harris said in a statement, “featuring ground-breaking appearances by many of our Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees — including Bowie, Prince, Queen, Cher, Patti Smith, Pearl Jam, Madonna, Mary J. Blige, Kate Bush and over a hundred others, and we are thrilled to join with our friends at SNL to share this exciting story with the millions of fans who walk through our doors in Cleveland or online at RockHall.com every year.”
