JOB Writer Max Wolf Friedlich Thought He Was Actually Having a Heart Attack on First Broadway Preview

Max Wolf Friedlich is looking back at the 2024 Broadway production of his play Job. 

During the Thursday, September 10, episode of the Feedback with Ira Madison III podcast, host Ira Madison III asked Friedlich what it was like opening the two-person play at Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre as he now prepares for the Off-Broadway premiere of his new play The Holes.

Friedlich — who has written a handful of other works — revealed that Job was “not the play” he imagined would take off the way that it did. 

The first time that he realized that the production was “out of control” and taking on a life of its own was when Hugh Jackman wanted to see the show when it was playing at Off-Broadway’s SoHo Playhouse in 2023. 

“We had a call at the box office from someone saying, ‘Hey, Hugh Jackman wants to see the show tonight,’ and there were no tickets,” Friedlich explained. 

Because there were no available house seats, the producer asked if anyone in the company knew of someone who was going to see the show that night and could give up their ticket for the Tony Award winner. 

“Someone’s cousin had a ticket three rows from the back, and so we gave Hugh Jackman someone’s cousin’s ticket, and we were like, ‘We’ll reimburse your cousin,’” Friedlich continued. “So Hugh Jackman saw the play like way in the back.”

“He’s Wolverine,” Friedlich noted of the Marvel star. “That was a moment where we had this huge celebrity, and we actually [had] trouble accommodating that. The extent to which it took off was really insane.” 

Following Job’s SoHo run, it returned Off-Broadway for an engagement at the Connelly Theater in early 2024 before transferring to Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre, where it ran from July 15 through September 29, 2024.

While Friedlich acknowledged that he’s “so grateful” for the success of Job, when it comes to The Holes, he admitted, “I’m not trying to have another banger, to be honest.” 

“It would be lovely, but…it was so stressful,” he admitted. “Our first preview of Job on Broadway, I went to the doctor cause I was like, ‘I think I’m having a heart attack.’” 

His girlfriend and longtime collaborator, Hannah Getts, told him, “I don’t think you are, but I think if a doctor will help you hear this…” 

Friedlich still felt uneasy and said he had “that feeling every day for three weeks.” He finally realized, “I guess this is what it’s like.” 

“I would love to not have that happen again,” said Friedlich. “Obviously, again, so grateful for the experience, but just the way that it happened was very not great for my mental.” 

When it comes to The Holes — for which Robert Pattinson serves as an executive producer through his production company, Icki Eneo Arlo — Friedlich will be happy with how it turns out as long as his collaborators are pleased.  

The Holes, Friedlich explained, “is a lot about my own relationship with shame and my own relationship with my gender. I don’t think that straight people — particularly straight men — often frame it in those terms, but it is about reckoning my relationship with my maleness and the ways in which I identify with that and the ways in which I also rebuke this thing that is a part of how I was socialized.” 

The Holes began performances September 8 at Wild Project, with opening night scheduled for September 22. The limited engagement will run through October 18.