Playwright: Joshua Harmon
At: About Face Theatre and Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets: 773-975-8150; AboutFaceTheatre.com; TheaterWit.org; $20-$38. Runs through: Dec. 9
Last July I reviewed Alone with Friends ( Prop Thtr ) about an unpartnered 30-year old gay man with no gay friends. His three best buds were straight guys from college. In Significant Other, Jordan Berman ( Alex Weisman ) is an unpartnered late-20s gay man with no gay friends. Jordan's best buds are three straight women from college. One by one they marry, thereby leaving Jordan needy, alone and isolated, and, oh, does he wear his heart on his sleeve!
Openly gay, not particularly discreet, in contemporary New York City and no gay acquaintances? I don't get it or believe it. Jordan says he has casual sex, but we never see him relate to a gay man in anything approaching social or sexual normalcy. His sex acts don't matter, of course, but they might counterbalance the clueless and socially inept character we are given, who obsesses over unobtainable empty male beauty. Sure, there are guys like Jordan, but they aren't likely to have with-it, professional, socially-active girlfriends like Laura ( Amanda Drinkall ), Vanessa ( Tiffany Oglesby ) and Kiki ( Cassidy Slaughter-Mason ). I'm not unsympathetic to Jordan's plight; I was young and alone, and also middle-aged and alone ( before finding my partner of 23 years ) but I always had friends within the LGBTQ community.
Harmon is a clever writer for all that. Significant Other boasts sparkling comedy as directed by Keira Fromm and acted by the astute company, which is completed by Ninos Baba and Benjamin Sprunger each playing several men, and veteran Ann Whitney who charms as Jordan's grandmother. Fromm keeps the pace fast as Harmon skillfully moves from outright comedy in Act I to a darker, bitterer Act II in which Jordan unloads on his bestie, Laura. "Your wedding is my funeral," he shouts. "I don't want to be a pitiable reminder of what happens to people who don't find someone." His powerful tirade is true but also cruel and self-centered as Weisman passionately spills it. All the while, wedding-cake white curtains and red flower clusters swath the players in Jeffrey D. Kmiec's wry set.
Perhaps Significant Other is autobiographical, Harmon being only 32 when it premiered. Hey, Joshua, it's normal to feel alone and be alone in your twenties and actually. It gets better, but you gotta' work on it. Bottom line: for all the energy of the play and the production, Significant Other is a been-there, done-that story.
It's also the Chicago farewell for Alex Weisman—the capable, versatile and forceful young actor who's worked non-stop for a decade at nearly all the important theaters ( large and small ) in town. Award-winning Weisman is off to New York for his springtime Broadway debut in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Come back a star, Alex!
