Fish In the Dark is the new comedy written by Larry David, the creator and star of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and co-creator of "Seinfeld." Fish In the Dark is directed by Anna D. Shapiro and marks Tony-winner Jason Alexander's Broadway return and features Jayne Houdyshell, Jake Cannavale, Jonny Orsini, Rosie Perez, and Jerry Adler.
...Larry David's first venture into Broadway playwriting, Fish in the Dark, is a spirited throwback to that once hugely popular gagmeister's patented specialty: classic boulevard comedy molded to fit the American Jewish family. It's also pure sitcom, energized by David's customary serrated edges and willfully abrasive characters...Director Anna D. Shapiro...stages the comedy with an unapologetic endorsement of its retro roots. She keeps her foot firmly on the accelerator without flooring it...While David adheres to an old-fashioned Broadway model, he also lards the comedy with enough of his trademark brittle edge to prevent it from becoming too quaint. His liking for uncomfortable situations and annoying characters, unskilled in diplomacy, yields steady laughs throughout...David has never been an actor so much as an exaggerated version of himself, and that's exactly what's called for in a performance played in knowing complicity with the audience. His exasperated eye rolls, appalled double-takes and broadly physicalized reactions of disbelief or mock atonement are all essential parts of shtick that fits him like a glove, and his public eats it up.
In Fish in the Dark...David plays what we can assume is another version of his real self...The Anna D Shapiro-directed play...looks in on a family grappling with a tragedy and what comes after, something he calls 'death etiquette'. It's a topic that puts David in his element. Dealing with parents, sex, death and the marital strife that comes with it: it's all there, and at times it's hilarious...he has the ability to slay the crowd with a gesture: standing on stage, arms out to both sides in mock outrage, a colossal grin on his face...While the set pieces are concocted with genius, and some...turn toe-curling into an art form, they don't come sublimely full circle in the way that David's plots are known and praised for. The show is very linear, and some of the funniest and cleverest scenes are cut off before they can really blossom. By the admittedly exceptional comic standards David has laid down, this ranks alongside an average episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
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