Significant Other is a group portrait of four friends, all in their twenties, who are looking for love in this, the second decade of the 21st century. Sounds like the setup for a sitcom—and that’s just what much of the play seemed to be, what with its kooky characters, gag-filled dialogue, and fast-paced action in a variety of upscale, urban settings. Now making its West Coast debut at the Geffen, the play by Joshua (Bad Jews) Harmon centers on Jordan Berman (the excellent Will Von Vogt), a gay, Jewish ad exec who struggles to find true love but is constantly thwarted in that quest by a combination of bad luck and bad choices. What also drives poor Jordan mad is the luck his three best friends, all of them women, have in finding significant others. As they begin to get married, one after the other, he finds himself isolated and alone. At 29, he’s ready to sing a broken-hearted blues. Jordan’s plight is hardly the stuff of great drama, but it is touching in a minor-key way, though I would have cared more about him if he weren’t such a self-centered, childish kind of guy, always demanding attention and affection. To be sure, Harmon tries to make him a little more sympathetic by giving him a decent sense of humor, but ultimately fails in that regard. It’s the women who give richer life and heart to the play, beginning with Kiki (Keilly McQuail), a motor-mouthed, hard-drinking, irreverent gal who has outrageous things to say about men, sex and marriage. Then there’s the exotic beauty Vanessa (Vella Lovell), who is the wise one (as befits an editor at Knopf), and Laura (Melanie Field), a plump schoolteacher who is Jordan’s best friend. At one time they were room-mates, close as brothers and sisters, but the bond was broken when she fell in love with Tony (John Garet Stoker) and decided to marry him. Jordan can’t stand the realization that he will no longer be the main man in her life. The change just unhinges him. Significant Other captures the unique way these 20-something pals relate to each other. Always yakking, whether face to face or on their i-phones, they stay in touch round the clock, reporting on their doings and feelings, cracking wise, giving advice, arguing, trading insults. They have built a familial bond over the years, but now marriage to outsiders is breaking that bond, sending them off in strange, new directions. The play takes place in many different settings: a modern-art museum, Jordan’s apartment, bars, marriage halls, private houses. Thanks to Sibyl Wickersheimer’s ingenious, multi-level set there is no halt to the action; it keeps moving swiftly and slickly, like a movie. Or a sitcom. But the cast and director deserve high praise for their expert and exceptional work.
