Simon Rich has always loved Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs — and now, he’s bringing the famed album to the stage, by incorporating live performances into his show, All In: Comedy About Love. The new marriage comedy on Broadway, starring John Mulaney, takes inspiration from the magnetic and earnest depictions of love from the hit Magnetic Fields album, with a rotating cast of Broadway stars and comedy giants like Chloe Fineman, Richard Kind, Fred Armisen, and Renée Elise Goldsberry. The play will showcase its musical stylings with the help of another pair of Broadway legends: husband-wife folk-rock duo The Bengsons. Best known for their semi-autobiographical theater works Hundred Days (2017) and The Keep Going Songs (2024), The Bengsons will perform select songs from the album alongside other Magnetic Fields hits onstage for all 10 weeks, according to production company Seaview.
The Bengsons say one of their first collective music listening experiences as a couple was 69 Love Songs, which they call “heaven” to be able to perform in front of an audience. “We met at a party in Queens and got married three weeks later. In between the party and the wedding we went on a road trip and one of the first albums we listened to together (a burned CD in an old green CD wallet) was 69 love songs,” the couple tells Rolling Stone. “We fell in love listening to those songs. They were so true and fucked up and aching and funny, we sang then together and to each other and we can’t believe we get to sing them in front of actual humans soon. It’s an honor and I’m guessing we’re just gonna like, scream and cry and laugh every night.”
Like the name suggests, 69 Love Songs is a 1999 triple album composed of 69 original tracks written by frontman Stephen Merrit. The album was named to Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and is considered one of the group’s seminal works. In 2024, the band reunited on tour to play the entire album through in order for the first time since 2000.
“I am excited to see how this famous humorist has used my songs,” Merrit tells Rolling Stone. “It’s always fun to see how actors interpret them, and if I weren’t on tour I’d be sneaking into rehearsals, pretending to be a stagehand.”
Rich is best known for his work as a novelist and a writer on SNL from 2007 to 2011. During his stint on the show, Rich worked alongside Mulaney and was on the writing team that received three consecutive Emmy nominations for Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Music, or Comedy Series. He’s also published dozens of short stories in the New Yorker and two novels. “69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields directly inspired me to write the love stories that became All In,” says Rich. “Stephin Merritt is my favorite living songwriter and he’s probably better than all the dead ones I like too.”
Performances begin December 11.