Kicking off with a tribute to the Blues Brothers from the evening’s host Jimmy Fallon, last night’s “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert” pulled out all the stops in celebrating the show’s rich musical history, as well as the influence music has had on its comedy. And though Fallon made sure to start the affair at Radio City Music Hall by pointing out that everyone in the room had some form of connection to “Saturday Night Live” and were not there as casual spectators, watching at home, its clear the production worked hard to place fans of the staple variety series right at the the center of the action as well.

The first singer of the evening was Miley Cyrus. After a rendition of Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” accompanied by The Roots (they served as the house band for the evening) and Brittany Howard, Cyrus gave...