Broadway’s hit thriller. Now extended through Oct 27.
Following two extended, sold-out downtown engagements, Max Wolf Friedlich’s play Job is now this summer’s “chic, relentless Broadway thriller. Job is extremely effective, often funny, with excellent performances.” – The New York Times
After being placed on leave following a viral incident, Jane would do anything to return to her Big Tech–company job. But as the therapist who needs to authorize it, Loyd suspects her work might be doing more harm than good.
Starring Tony Award® nominee Peter Friedman (Ragtime, “Succession”) and Sydney Lemmon (Tár, “Fear the Walking Dead”), “Job is very provocative, stimulating, and daring—you won’t be bored for a millisecond” (Chicago Tribune). Don’t miss this “electrifying” (Variety), on Broadway through October 27 only.
Regretfully, I did not see “Job” during its earlier runs, and I suspect that it was probably more exciting to see it in a more intimate downtown space. On Broadway, the production (as directed by Michael Herwitz) looks empty and the play feels underwritten. It dumps compelling societal concerns upon us, leaves them unexplored, and relies structurally on an uninspired starting point (i.e. confessing to a therapist) and gimmicks.
It’s muscle-tensing and entertaining, particularly in the play’s middle stretch, to watch a meeting of two differently melted minds. And satisfying when Loyd pokes at Jane’s hypocrisies and delusions, her conviction that she’s nothing and also an online martyr – “It’s a privilege to suffer as much as I do,” she says. Still, Friedlich’s line-by-line writing is shrewd enough to convey Jane’s internal hell of self-reflective mirrors, her spiral of judgment to nowhere. Job is, for the most part, a tonal highwire act that wisely keeps to a taut 80 minutes. Or perhaps the more accurate metaphor is trapeze – swinging wildly between farce, zeitgeist-y drama and thriller. Somehow, it lands most of the tricks, including a turn toward the pitch-black in the final act, which ends just before it runs this tight battle of wills and expertise off the rails. Job smartly knows when to log off; there may be no grand messages (and thank God), but this is one of the more insightful internet spirals.
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Return Engagement Off-Broadway |
2024 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
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