Yesterday’s announcement that Larry David would soon be headed to Broadway—for real this time—sparked the imagination as to what sort of character this dramatic chameleon might undertake next, and what debt it may owe to the methods of Stanislavski or the immersive honesty of Meisner. As it turns out, Larry David will be playing “somebody very similar to Larry David—it might even be Larry David with a different name,” Larry David tells the New York Times, meaning we will simply have to wait until his subsequent turn on the stage to see David take on the tormented, Tennessee Williams Southern belle that has for so long lurked beneath that surface. Until next time.
Other details David confirmed: The play opens March 5 under the direction of August: Osage County’s Anna D. Shapiro, and Jerry Seinfeld is not (and never was) involved. It will indeed be a comedy about a death in the family, titled not Shiva, as previously reported, but Fish In The Dark, after the worst Ozzy Osbourne song. And it will be the first time David’s taken on a stage play, outside of his fake turn in The Producers, since he was in eighth grade.
Perhaps most importantly to everyone outside of Broadway, this production basically puts the kibosh on any new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm—at least until it’s over. David said he “hadn’t ruled out” doing more Curb, but that he’s “not going to mentally do that to myself right now.” Also, if he did do another season, “this play would push that schedule back.” So we’d say that if he did do a ninth season, it could be about how Larry David starring in a Broadway show ends up irritating everyone else. But of course, he already did that.