9:00 pm Fraser Auditorium $89.50 (Orchestra Section) $84.50 (Balcony) +GST to all Tickets

Jason Alexander

The persona of George Costanza, created by versatile actor/writer/director Jason Alexander, has been dubbed by Entertainment Weekly as one of the “Best Television Sidekicks of All Time” (#3 actually, behind Robin and Tonto). The hapless, thoughtless, neurotic everyman that he played for nine seasons on NBC’s Seinfeld garnered him six Emmy and four Golden Globe nominations, an American Television Award and two American Comedy Awards for “Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series.”  The Screen Actors Guild went one step higher and knighted him “Best Actor in a Comedy Series,” despite his role as a supporting actor.



   

Fifteen years before Seinfeld, Alexander was building a career that would include performing Tony Award-winning Broadway roles as well as appearing in major film and television projects, producing, directing and writing, making him one of the most consistently coveted stars in the country.  After studying at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, he moved to New York to pursue a theatre career.  Over a decade he racked up hit after hit.  His notable Broadway debut came in Hal Prince and Stephen Sondheim’s 1981 musical production of Merrily We Roll Along.  In quick succession, he starred in productions of Forbidden Broadway, The Rink, Stop the World…, Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound, Personals, Light Up the Sky, Michael Stewart’s “D,” and Accomplice, to name a few.  Though known at the time mainly as an actor, Alexander was asked by Jerome Robbins to write the narrative book for his revue Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. To perform it, Alexander would play 14 different characters at every performance.  And for that chameleon-like ability, he won the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Tony Awards as “Best Actor in a Musical.”  The show he authored went on to win Best Musical.

After winning the Tony Award in 1989, Alexander was cast in two projects that would change the direction of his career and his life. The first was his role as Richard Gere’s wily and misogynistic lawyer in Pretty Woman. The role made him a nationally recognized face, albeit one that women wanted very much to slap. The second was winning the role of George in Seinfeld, which made him recognizable throughout the world as a figure that some would slap, some would cuddle, but all would love. 

Now focusing primarily on television and film in Los Angeles, his film credits include The Burning Mosquito Coast, White Palace, Jacob’s Ladder, Coneheads, The Paper, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, and Ira and Abby.  His recent television credits include E.R., Bob Patterson and Listen Up. He has also guest starred on the television hits Malcolm in the Middle, Monk, and Everybody Hates Chris. He has also directed episodes of Remember WENN, Campus Ladies, Everybody Hates Chris and Seinfeld, for which he was nominated for a DGA Award. Alexander also starred in several films for television, including: Rockabye, Favorite Son, Cinderella, The Man Who Saved Christmas, Bye Bye Birdie and A Christmas Carol.

His voice has been featured time and again in both film (Aladdin 2: The Return of Jafar, The Hunchback of Notre Dame I and II, Madeline: Lost in Paris, The Trumpet of the Swan, 101 Dalmatians II: Patch’s London Adventure, Farce of the Penguins) and television (Dinosaurs, Aladdin, Hercules, Dilbert, The Legend of Tarzan, House of Mouse, Odd Job Jack and as the star of the cult animation classic, Duckman).

When Alexander is not appearing as a character, he is often being asked to appear as some version of himself.  He’s been a frequent guest on every major daytime and late-night talk show. He has hosted Saturday Night Live and The 47th Annual Emmy Awards. He has played himself on The Larry Sanders Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, Comic Relief, The Aristocrats, game shows, celebrity poker showdowns, celebrity roasts, improvisations and charity telethons.  He is most proud and most often commended for his seven appearances with host Bill Maher on the HBO series Real Time, in which he has been an outspoken, articulate, insightful and satirical advocate for progressive issues.