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Producers for Larry David's Fish in the Dark just announced that the author-star will play his final performance in the family comedy June 7, to be replaced immediately by Jason Alexander. The limited engagement run of the production has been extended for six weeks through July 19. David says, in the press release: “Not only was I fortunate enough to write for Jason Alexander on Seinfeld, but I also had a ringside seat watching his brilliant, indelible performances. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I heard he was replacing me… Finally I can enjoy the show.”
Those who primarily associate Alexander with his 1990s TV alter ego, George Costanza, might be surprised to learn that he’s a Tony Award winner and a Broadway trouper in a previous life. His debut on the Great White Way, when he was still in his early twenties, was the ill-fated Stephen Sondheim–George Furth musical Merrily We Roll Along. Then came five more gigs, culminating in the Tony win for Jerome Robbins’ Broadway in 1989. That was the same year Alexander began appearing as luckless schlemiel Costanza (a role David modeled on himself) and nothing was the same. His last stage gig was the 2003 Los Angeles production of Mel Brooks’ The Producers, in which he starred as Max Bialystock opposite Martin Short.
For Fish in the Dark, Alexander will not have to do any singing or dancing—just deliver punch lines, be angsty and aggrieved, and act like a selfish jerk. And we know he can do that.