SIGNIFICANT OTHER Reviews

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 3/2/17 at 2:04am

Caught the final preview and was genuinely moved. Energy and emotion was palpable. Tonight's opening night at the Booth. Post the notices here, gang!

[haterobics]

Posted: 3/2/17 at 8:42am

Will this be the first Isherwood Off-Broadway review that gets Brantleyed on Broadway?

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 3/2/17 at 8:46am

I hoping reviews can save this production - but it might not be enough.

[AC126748]

Posted: 3/2/17 at 8:46am

haterobics said: "Will this be the first Isherwood Off-Broadway review that gets Brantleyed on Broadway?

 

"

There's no guarantee Brantley will be the one to review it.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 3/2/17 at 6:58pm

IdinaBellFoster said: "I'm hoping reviews can save this production - but it might not be enough."

If not the reviews, then maybe if it's still running when Tony nominations are announced, it could get (somewhat of) a boost there.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/2/17 at 8:11pm

Saw this off'-b'way, and thought immediately: "This is a show which would've run 2-3 years off'-B'way back in the day."  It's touched a chord in many people. The posts about it were impassioned.  In 2017, B'way is a different challenge. But this play has a charming central performance and wonderful company. If the nut is reasonable, it could build. 

[Anshel2]

Posted: 3/2/17 at 9:22pm

I enjoyed it, but does anyone else think it would've carried more emotional weight if the lead character was 10 years older - 39 rather than 29.  I had a hard time believing his desperation for a relationship at 29.

[BakerWilliams]

Posted: 3/2/17 at 9:38pm

Terry Teachout is mixed/negative on the first 3/4 and really loves the last quarter (I must say, I'm in agreement.)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/significant-other-review-coming-of-age-1488504600?tesla=y

Since I know there is a paywall, here's a single passage from the review:

Since “Significant Other” made it well past intermission without showing any signs of becoming unpredictable, it seemed safe to assume that it would remain so to the finish line. But halfway through the second act, it suddenly metamorphoses into a different play with the same characters, a dead-serious look at the problem of being a lonely singleton in a world full of hurtfully contented couples. The gears shift when Jordan confronts Laura at her bachelorette party, angrily telling her that she has deserted him for her fiancé and that “your wedding is my funeral….it somehow enshrines the officially non-existent role I’ll play in your life from now on except as occasional court jester and pitiable reminder of what happens to people who never find someone.” Yes, it’s unfair, but Jordan believes it, and his desperation is so palpable that you can’t help but sympathize—as does Laura, who never saw it coming. From this moment on, the cliché tap is shut off and every character in “Significant Other” becomes touchingly real, the way they should have been all along. Nor does Mr. Harmon, to his infinite credit, cheat the audience at evening’s end: I mustn’t give away the curtain, but suffice it to say that what happens (or, rather, doesn’t happen) is powerfully true to the mature sense of life’s limitations that Jordan has acquired at long last.

[hockeynut2]

Posted: 3/2/17 at 9:49pm

Here is Deb Miler's review on DCMetroTheaterArts:

" Very funny and ultimately poignant...Significant Other tells a very entertaining and consummately human story. It’s witty and sensitive, and it will leave you thinking about the old friends you left behind in an earlier chapter of your own life, whether you were ready to or not." Deb Miller. DCMetroTheaterArts

http://dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2017/03/02/review-significant-booth-theatre/

Updated On: 3/2/17 at 09:49 PM

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 3/2/17 at 10:14pm

Here is Ben Brantley's review...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/theater/significant-other-review.html

[GreasedLightning]

Posted: 3/2/17 at 10:44pm

AC126748 said: "haterobics said: "Will this be the first Isherwood Off-Broadway review that gets Brantleyed on Broadway?

 

"

There's no guarantee Brantley will be the one to review it.

 

"

Who else would it be? 

[BakerWilliams]

Posted: 3/2/17 at 11:41pm

Without a Times rave, it seems like the play's days are numbered. 

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 3/3/17 at 8:32am

Is the NYT's review really that much of a be-all-end-all? Remember, they gave Disaster! a Critic's Pick seal...

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 3/3/17 at 8:33am

Ado Annie D'Ysquith said: "Remember, they gave Disaster! a Critic's Pick seal..."

#NeverForget

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 3/3/17 at 9:08am

Anything that Isherwood wrote should now be taken with a grain of salt, re: Disaster.

I'm disappointed that Brantley didn't like it, though not surprised. It's not really written for people his age.

[newintown]

Posted: 3/3/17 at 9:15am

"I'm disappointed that Brantley didn't like it, though not surprised. It's not really written for people his age."

Really? I thought it seemed to be written for people of any age who think sitcoms are smart entertainment, (particularly older, straight people). Personally, I found it to be inane beyond endurance.

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 3/3/17 at 9:48am

Anshel 2 you make a good point. I'm basically Glick's character several years later and the results aren't pretty. I think I'll simultaneously love and hate this play.

Updated On: 3/3/17 at 09:48 AM

[haterobics]

Posted: 3/3/17 at 9:50am

https://twitter.com/dailyjgroff/status/837546750390853632

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 3/3/17 at 9:58am

newintown said: ""I'm disappointed that Brantley didn't like it, though not surprised. It's not really written for people his age."

Really? I thought it seemed to be written for people of any age who think sitcoms are smart entertainment, (particularly older, straight people). Personally, I found it to be inane beyond endurance."

 

I think you just answered your own question, didn't you?

[newintown]

Posted: 3/3/17 at 10:06am

"I think you just answered your own question, didn't you?"

I don't think so; the night I saw it the people enjoying it most seemed to be the aged white folks who looked like the Manhattan Theatre Club subscribers. I thought it was written for them. (And Brantley isn't very far from that demographic.)

I know the majority of the characters in the play are in their 20s; however, I wouldn't say it was written for a young audience. It's a dusty piece of triteness. Or maybe that's what you mean? That Brantley is too young to enjoy it?

[AC126748]

Posted: 3/3/17 at 10:46am

I know the majority of the characters in the play are in their 20s; however, I wouldn't say it was written for a young audience. 

They're definitely marketing it towards a young audience, though. And as someone who is in the target demographic (young, gay, urban, etc), I found it insufferable.

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 3/3/17 at 1:49pm

An interesting (mildly self-righteous) review from Towleroad:

"Jordan’s extreme thirst is consistently played for laughs. Rather than digging into the underlying causes of his fears and insecurities as a queer person (a subject this recent HuffPo feature mines to compelling effect), the production presents Jordan as a sort minstrel of gay neuroses and delusion. He details his deep, carnal desire for the hot guy at his office pool party, and the crowd goes wild. He jokes about suicide, and it’s nothing more than a punch line — that lands."

http://www.towleroad.com/2017/03/significant-other/

 

And the dark article they link to in the Huffington Post:

"For years I’ve noticed the divergence between my straight friends and my gay friends. While one half of my social circle has disappeared into relationships, kids and suburbs, the other has struggled through isolation and anxiety, hard drugs and risky sex."

http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/gay-loneliness/

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 3/3/17 at 2:10pm

Interesting- I've yet to see the show on Broadway (and this can't say how it feels in a bigger house with a bigger audience) but I did not get that vibe from the play at all, and I'm a 20-something gay man in New York. I do think the play misses something by having Jordan abstain from hookup culture (not that there aren't gay men who abstain, but it's an odd note that it's barely mentioned), but overall I think the play is a great representation of the loneliness that the HuffPo article is talking about. The article is more about problems making queer friends, but I think it can extend to Jordan and his straight female friends as well. 

[Kad]

Posted: 3/3/17 at 3:03pm

Though I largely enjoyed the play off-Broadway, my misgivings  are similar to those in the Towelroad review. I think Harmon isolates Jordan so thoroughly from the rest of queer life to a surprising degree and it is hard for me to discern whether or not that is the point or merely a contrivance to make this thing go. The character is fixated on a monogamous heteronormative relationship to the point of being blinkered, while also having no queer friends, having no willingness to consider other relationship options, and being dismissive of many facets of gay culture.

Posted: 3/3/17 at 9:26pm

Variety, time out New York, EW, and Hollywood reporter really seemed to love it. 

The major takeaway from what I read was Gideon Glick's performance was stellar and star turning. Good for him. I thought He deserves it. Hope he gets the tony recognition. 

Updated On: 3/3/17 at 09:26 PM