Colin Quinn’s Long Story Short To Air on HBO in April

The February 2 and 3 performances of Colin Quinn's Long Story Short will be taped by HBO and aired as a special in April, according to The New York Times. Jerry Seinfeld, who helmed the solo show about the rise and fall of the world’s great empires, will also have a hand in directing those tapings.

“They were thrilled that they were going to be able to showcase him,” Seinfeld told the paper. “That’s really been the thing for me, too. This is a guy that I have believed in and amazed by for so many years, and it’s just really cool to be part of creating something – a vehicle for someone’s talent. It can be a tough thing to do.”

Long Story Short began life off-Broadway at the Bleecker Street Theatre before transferring to the Great White Way. Since opening at Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre on November 9, 2010, the show has extended twice, and will now take its final bow on March 5. According to Seinfeld, discussions are underway to tour the show nationally following its Broadway closing, while Quinn is eager to perform the show for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Comically channeling the demise of great world empires, Long Story Short takes audiences through Quinn's version of the history of the world in 75 minutes. From his personification of Caesar as the original Italian mobster to his complaints about Ancient Greece and Antigone giving way to Costco and Snooki, Quinn uses satire to take on the attitudes, appetites and bad habits that toppled the world's most powerful nations.