From the Artistic Director: Significant Other

By: May. 18, 2015
Enter Your Email to Unlock This Article

Plus, get the best of BroadwayWorld delivered to your inbox, and unlimited access to our editorial content across the globe.




Existing user? Just click login.

On May 21, Significant Other by Joshua Harmon, the final production of the 2014-15 season begins previews at the Laura Pels Theatre.

Joshua's name may already be familiar to you as the playwright of Bad Jews, the hit play that enjoyed wildly successful runs first atRoundabout Underground's Black Box Theatre and then at the Pels, to which he now makes an exciting return. It's hard to explain the incredible impact that Bad Jews has had for this young playwright. The play has become one of themost-produced new works across the country this year, in addition to two sold-out runs in London. Wherever Bad Jews goes, audiences and critics are embracing this story and Josh's voice.

It's no small task for a writer to create the follow-up to such a massive professional debut, and I can only imagine the pressure that Josh was feeling to write a play that could potentially reach people on the same level. Happily, I can report that Significant Other is not only as bracing and funny as we could have hoped, but it also shows a deep, heartfelt maturity that evidences this playwright's ongoing growth.

On the surface, Significant Other is about a young gay man looking for love, but the play examines so much more than that. It lets us see through the eyes of Jordan Berman, a character who is absolutely terrified that, as each of his dearest friends finds happiness, he is moving incrementally closer to the fate of being utterly alone. In a society in which close friends are increasingly as important as biological family, especially in a city like New York, it's a very real fear. As Jordan tells his grandmother, her friends may literally be dying off, but it feels a lot like the same thing is happening to his. Watching Jordan transition from life of the party to the one left on the sidelines, it's a heartbreaking shift.

Inspired by playwright Wendy Wasserstein and her work that examined the question of "having it all," Josh has taken this idea into the present day, moving the gay man who is often the ladies' sidekick in these stories directly to center stage. And he poses an emotional question that Wasserstein's characters may encountered but never articulated: It may be hard not to know what you want, but isn't it worse to know exactly what you want from life and feel incredibly far from getting it?

I'm so proud of Josh and of his funny and moving new work. He has an excellent collaborator in Trip Cullman, an extremely talented director coming to Roundabout for the first time. With a stellar cast and design team, the elements are in place to deliver a truly wonderful world premiere forSignificant Other.

I'm thrilled to be bringing this new play to you, and I hope that you will share your thoughts onSignificant Other after seeing the show. Please email me at artisticoffice@roundabouttheatre.orgto let me know what you think.

I look forward to seeing you at the theatre!

Sincerely,

Todd Haimes
Artistic Director



Videos