Jason Alexander to Bring New One-Man Show to Westbury

Tony Award-winner Jason Alexander will open his new one-man show "Jason Alexander: Comedy! Music! Musical Comedy!," this Thursday night at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury.

According to reports the production is a loose autobiographical show that will feature songs from his past theatrical endeavors.

The show is a scaled back version of a similar show Alexander has been performing with symphony orchestras for the past two years.

He says of the new show, "We've reduced our orchestrations down to six instruments, six players, and the idea is that we're able to go into performing-arts centers and smaller theaters. And so Westbury is our first experiment. . . . The whole show is basically theater music - most of it is known, some of it is not, and it's sprinkled with anecdotal stories. And then there are some little quirks we built in, like there's one number when I will arbitrarily pick seven people out of the audience and they're going to come up and do it with me. It's like "An Evening With ..." kind of thing."

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Though best known for his award-winning, nine year stint as the now iconic George Costanza of television's "Seinfeld," Jason Alexander has achieved international recognition for a career noted for its extraordinary diversity. Aside from his performances on stage, screen and television, he has worked extensively as a writer, composer, director, producer and teacher of acting. In between all that, he has also become an award-winning magician, a notorious poker player and a respected advocate on social and political issues.

Alexander began his professional career as a young teenager doing commercials for television and radio. While still in college, his desire to work as a stage actor in New York came to be with his debut in the original Broadway cast of the Hal Prince/Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along. He continued starring on Broadway in the original casts of Kander and Ebb's The Rink, Neil Simon's Broadway Bound, Rupert Holmes' Accomplice and his Tony Award-winning performance in Jerome Robbin's Broadway. Alexander also authored the libretto for that show which went on to win the Tony Award for Best Musical. After moving to LA, Alexander continued working in the theater, notably serving as the artistic director for the Reprise Theatre Company and starring in the hit West Coast production of Mel Brook's The Producers with Martin Short. In 2015, Alexander returned to Broadway to star in the Larry David comedy Fish in the Dark and recently appeared in John Patrick Shanley's The Portuguese Kid at Manhattan Theatre Club.

His many films include Pretty Woman, Jacob's Ladder, Love Valor Compassion, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Dunston Checks In, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Shallow Hal. In addition, he directed the feature films For Better or Worse and Just Looking. He is also a distinguished television director, overseeing episodes of "Seinfeld," "Til Death," "Everybody Hates Chris," "Mike and Molly," "Criminal Minds" and "Franklin and Bash." He won the American Country Music Award for his direction of Brad Paisley's video "Online," and he has helmed a number of stage productions including The God of Hell at The Geffen Playhouse, Broadway Bound at the Odyssey, an updated revival of Damn Yankees and The Fantasticks, as well as Sunday in the Park with George for Reprise and most recently the world premiere of Windfall by Scooter Pietsch for the Arkansas Repertory Theater.

Aside from "Seinfeld," Alexander has starred and guested in shows including "The Grinder," "Drunk History," "Friends," "Two and a Half Men," "The New Adventures of Old Christine," "Criminal Minds," "Monk," "Franklin and Bash," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Bob Patterson" and "Listen Up." He was recently seen in "Hit the Road" a show he co-created, executive produced and starred in on DirecTV's Audience network. He also starred in the television films of Bye Bye Birdie, Cinderella, A Christmas Carol and The Man Who Saved Xmas. Additionally, his voice has been heard most notably in "Duckman," "The Cleveland Show," "American Dad," "Tom and Jerry" and the children's animated series "Kody Kapow."

For his depiction of George on "Seinfeld," Alexander garnered six Emmy nominations, four Golden Globe nominations, an American Television Award and two American Comedy Awards. He won two Screen Actors Guild Awards as the best actor in a television comedy despite playing a supporting role, and in 2012 he was honored to receive the "Julie Harris Award for Lifetime Achievement" from The Actors Fund.

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