Broadway Play: Fish in the Dark

Fish in the Dark is a Broadway play by Larry David that premiered on March 5, 2015 and centers around fifteen characters as they deal with a death in their family (tickets available at TicketATM.com). The play opens in a hospital waiting room where the head of the house is dying and the assorted family members are coming by to pay their respects to their loved family member. And like any ordinary family, the children are fighting over family issues of inheritance from who gets to take care of the mother to who gets their father’s Rolex watch.

It is fairly new play, but the reviews are vastly positive because of the comedic realism this focuses on in families of this day and age. The main character aside from the dying patriarch, the son Norman Drexel goes to the hospital and what you would think would be about his final respects to his dying father, he is more concerned with whether or not should he tip the doctors for all that they have done, a dilemma that can account for not one but two of the best sight gags in this dysfunctional family comedy.

Instead of sticking to the conventional constructive plot, the Fish in the Dark metaphorically swims from one comedic situation to another, which may not make it much of a play as it does a very exciting and insightful comedy. With all the greedy relatives around and all the dark secrets coming to light this play is a great escape from the everyday dull drum of the normal life but also looks very closely at the everyday problems in most families these days. It is not just the squabbles between siblings and estranged family members all happening as the family’s head is lying in the bed dying which seems to be long and drawn out with a very spirited man who shows the spirit especially well when a very pretty girl makes the mistake of paying him a bedside visit, all in front of his wife Gloria, who takes all type of flirtatious advances of her dying husband towards other women with a grace that only some women can only strive to have.

Not exactly a play that you would take anyone to, but a great play nonetheless. Tickets to A Fish in The Dark are well worth the ticket price and the two hour running time. If you’re in New York, what better comedy could you see than one written by the creator of Seinfeld?