Different Animals Off-Broadway Original Cast

All her life, Jessica Tarver has clung to the gospels of romantic comedy and happily-ever-after. But by her late twenties, she finds herself languishing in Spartanburg, South Carolina - reeling from the sting of a failed business venture, disappointed by her May-December marriage and committing adultery in the bathroom of an Olive Garden.

Though Jess finds a figment of romance in her childhood friend William Burnip, now a charismatic liberal activist and the pastor of her Lutheran church, Will is interested in little more than sex. Meanwhile, Jessica's husband Leo sets his sights on Molly Gardner, an unstable young coworker, who in turn falls in love with both of the Tarvers at once.

At once a raunchy comedy and a study of modern marriage, mental illness, Christianity, grief and loss, Different Animals follows a few old-fashioned souls as they search for spiritual fulfillment among the churches and chain restaurants of the New South, in the age of social media and monogamy's decline.