By Stephen Lessley
Multimedia & Promotions Manager
Television legend, Larry David, has released a highly anticipated ninth season of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ after a six-year hiatus. In this installment of the series, David reveals his newest work to the audience, Fatwa! The Musical.
Fatwa! is a play centered around the fictional retelling of a controversy surrounding Salman Rushdie, an author whose book landed him a death threat from the Ayatollah. While a fatwa is not always necessarily a ruling of death and simply a ruling given by a recognized Islamic authority, this ruling was considered a fatwa.
Upon revealing his works to the world, David himself is targeted by the current Ayatollah who has issued a fatwa ordering his assassination.
David is not unfamiliar to getting on peoples’ wrong side, but this season takes that plotline to another level— he is on the hook for his life. The finale led the season out on a strong finish. It gave viewers a glimpse at how the musical is shaping up.
Now that David’s case has been reviewed by the tribunal of Muftis in episode eight, he has no worries of official fatwa assassins. However, as Jeff Green (Jeff Garlin) points out in the episode, there could be off-the-grid, devout Muslims who have not received word of these proceedings.
Lin-Manuel Miranda and co-stars perform a song to start the final episode off. David is pleased with the performance but of course, his original feud with Miranda, started by David falling asleep during Miranda’s presentation of Hamilton, continues. He initially irritates him, in this episode, by changing David’s original songs into his own.
Miranda is certainly talented in the theater and he plays the role of the jerk well in this episode. “Curb Your Enthusiasm” always seems to get the viewer just as disgruntled as David, while he struggles through the social circumstances of his life. This episode is the epitome of episodes, leaving everyone as uncomfortable as the characters on screen. David’s unscripted world comes to life, with the assistance of great acting and dialogue.
The ensemble of regulars such as Garlin, Susie Essman, Bob Einstein, Richard Lewis, Ted Danson and J.B. Smoove gave a moving performance, accompanied by some new guest stars. Among the guest stars was Nick Offerman as Cody, Fatwa!’s stage manager, and F. Murray Abraham as himself acting as the Ayatollah. There was a nice blend of nostalgic moments and new surprises.
There is no doubt this finale was satisfying and hilarious. The series of plots and subplots come full circle, giving us the pleasure of seeing David’s ultimate consequences unfold. Fans and new viewers alike will find themselves on the edge of their seats or falling off of them in hysteria.