George Costanza peddles McDonald’s

I like to boast to fellow Seinfeld fans that I knew about George Costanza long before he was George Costanza. In 1989, I scored free tickets to a remarkable show called Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, a tribute to the great director-choreographer. Made of bits from Robbins’ previous shows, this crazy quilt of musical comedy was held together by a narrator of such irrepressible, cherubic energy that you found yourself actually waiting for the singing, dancing, wisecracking narrator to return to the stage for his next bit.

This was Jason Alexander, who only a few months later would start swapping non sequiturs with Jerry Seinfeld on NBC and help make TV sitcom history.

Turns out, I wasn’t the only one who caught Jason Alexander’s talent, pre-Seinfeld. In the mid-’80s, several million TV watchers witnessed Alexander, hair sprouting luxuriously from his scalp, pitching the “McD LT” specialty hamburger in the commercial posted above. Somehow, I look at this and think, “George? Is that you?”

Alexander was an experienced showman long before he was George, and he’s returned to live theater in his most current project, Jason Alexander as Donny Clay, a one-man, stand-up, semi-improvisational, interactive spoof of lifestyle gurus. The show plays one night only – today, Saturday, Jan. 9 – presented at the Celebrity Theatre by the Scottsdale Center for the Arts. Tickets are still available.