Meet Jordan Berman. He's single. And he has a date with a co-worker to see a documentary about the Franco-Prussian war. At least, he thinks it's a date. Significant Other follows Jordan and his three closest friends as they navigate love, friendship and New York in the twenty-something years.
The Broadway debut of author Joshua Harmon will be complemented by the Broadway debut of rising young director Trip Cullman, who guided the play to its successful off-Broadway engagement.
Significant Other was a NY Times Critic's Pick when it premiered last summer at Roundabout Theatre Company. Charles Isherwood, writing in the New York Times, called it "an entirely delightful new play, as richly funny as it is ultimately heart-stirring."
Significant Other began at Roundabout Theatre Company following the professional debut and world premiere of Joshua Harmon's play Bad Jews at Roundabout Underground's Black Box in fall 2012.
The reviews had been so positive for the off-Broadway production of Joshua Harmon's Significant Other, that its laureled coronation on Broadway should have been all but assured. But there are so many jarring, derailing elements to this Roundabout Theatre production-about a gay man in his late twenties, confronting loneliness, but not really confronting loneliness convincingly, and therein lies the problem-that the evening merely becomes an extended sequence of his irritating whining. The play's peppy (occasionally extremely funny) comedy ill-balances its very dark heart, which-as the final curtain reveals-is really about one man's terrible isolation. It's Ibsen meets Will and Grace, but-as that show's Jack might screech-'in a bad way.'
I'll admit to finding Significant Other no better than admirably pleasant when this mounting originated at Roundabout's Laura Pels Theatre during the summer of 2015, but there's a noticeably new spark in director Tripp Cullman's production, that neatly glides from effervescent to emotionally raw. If there have been script changes, they don't appear to have been major. Jones is the only new addition to the cast, but perhaps what's happening is a strengthened connection between Mendez's Laura and Glick's Jordan as their relationship moves far beyond the straight woman/gay man dynamic typically found in popular culture. A second act confrontation that has Laura in tears because Jordan feel she's abandoning him by getting married is brutal to watch and you can legitimately ache for both characters.
2015 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Off-Broadway |
2017 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2017 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Gideon Glick |
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