Significant Other

Joshua Harmon has penned yet another "summer play" for all to enjoy.  It is being presented off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theater at Roundabout and the venue and timing couldn't be more perfect.  It's like those summer beach books - not to complex, not too long, and a touch of serious but not too much that you're talking about the issues for days.  It's the perfect summer indulgence.

Trip Cullman has finally made his rounds complete at all the non-for-profit theaters in NYC and Roundabout is now finally the recipient of his fine directorial skills.  The show centers on the millennial, Jordan Berman, who is played with pitch perfect looks and tone by the adorable Gideon Glick.  He's cute, shy, and gay.  In this case it seems to mean he doesn't have any male gay friends.  This is a bit annoyingly unrealistic for the setting of NYC, but we'll go with it.  His BFF girlfriends are all growing up and one by one getting married.  Poor Jordan is being left in the proverbial dust because he just can't find anyone (again, in NYC I find this and odd premise).

Exposition reveals that each girl is herself quite a different character and Jordan gets something different from each of them.  Laura (Lindsay Mendez) is perhaps his closest and most sincere soul-mate from his youth.  Kiki (Sas Goldberg) and Vanessa (Carra Patterson) both play slightly more wild BFFs.  Together all 4 make up quite a bunch of fun loving friends.  As a foil to his youth, Jordan also has a close relationship with his grandmother (Barbara Barrie) who we are lead to believe is old, spry, perceptive, OK with him being gay, and slowly losing her memory but holding on to life itself. (i thought it odd that his parents are never really mentioned from what i recall).


Act I was long and contained perhaps a bit too much exposition than needed to get the basic point across.  Act II was much more confrontational and emotional which culminated in a scene in which Jordan basically unleashes a lifetime of pent up anger, frustration, and angst (about being gay, being a gay BFF and a lot of other baggage) on Laura in a very long and emotionally played rant that in itself deserved a round of applause when he was done.  

The play, like life itself, just moves forward and ends.  It's up to you to decide if it is hopeful, sad, inspiring, or depressing.  I suppose everyone can see a lot of character traits of both themselves and various friends in many of the characters - so everyone will take bits and pieces that suit their experiences away and it will be up to them to decide how they feel about the whole thing in the end.  I happen to see it with a bunch of single folks and I am left wondering if some of my married straight friends might take something different away from it than me.  I bet they do.

Wit

A play about cancer and dying is probably not something that is first on your uplifting winter "must see" list.  But don't click the back button on your browser just yet.  Attention must be paid.  This play is a modern watershed of issue and emotion.  Cynthia Nixon may be compared to the prior leading ladies in this work, but without ever having seen those other leading ladies (whom I also adore),  I give Ms. Nixon a standing ovation right here - not only for her acting, her emotion, and ownership of the role, but for her giving life to the words on the page and to all those who are touched by cancer.

I'd like to highlight something that I have not seen in many of the other reviews - which tend to focus on Ms. Nixon's performance and the intelligent play on literature, poetry, grammar, God, and yes, wit.   What I found so biting was Ms. Edson's condemnation of doctors and, frankly, the entire health care system in general, while at the same time, the defense and promotion of the care giving of nurses.  Time and time again, to quite a successful humorous result each time, we hear uncaring, unobservant, superficial doctors go about their business of talking above a patient's head, asking "How do you feel today" to a patient suffering the pains of chemotherapy.   I found, quite often, Ms. Edson's dual emotions toward the situation - the superior intelligence and necessity of academics and researchers in the medical field and at the same time her bitter disdain for the lack of warmth, observation, and comfort by those same people.

The bitter pill she is forced to swallow is that she herself is forced to transition from (literary) expert to subject, teacher to student, artist to model.  She intelligently and rationally comes to the conclusion about what her life was and what it was not.  How she lived it and just how it may end.

There are many layers to this play and Ms. Nixon and director Lynne Meadow have chosen some of its finest most relevant to showcase in 2012.  Bravo Ms. Nixon, Ms. Meadow and to the entire cast for a top notch performance of a touching work!