12
May/20

BROADWAY’S BEST SHOWS: SIGNIFICANT OTHER LIVESTREAM READING

12
May/20

significant other

Who: Gideon Glick, John Behlmann, Sas Goldberg, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Lindsay Mendez, Luke Smith, Barbara Barrie
What: One-night-only livestreamed reading benefiting the Actors Fund
Where: Broadway’s Best Shows, the Actors Fund YouTube page
When: Thursday, May 14, free (donations accepted), 8:00
Why: Joshua Harmon’s Significant Other seems tailor made for the coronavirus pandemic: a brilliant show about a group of friends who are seeking romantic partners, with varying degrees of success, while focusing on Jordan Berman, a twentysomething gay man who thinks he might be doomed to spend his life alone. I first saw the play — and loved it — in 2015 at the Roundabout, then fell in love with it all over again when it moved to the Booth on Broadway in 2017. On May 14, the original Broadway cast will reunite for a one-time-only Zoom reading benefiting the Actors Fund. Participating from wherever they are sheltering in place — either by themselves or with significant others — are Gideon Glick as Jordan, Sas Goldberg as Kiki, Rebecca Naomi Jones as Vanessa, Lindsay Mendez as Laura, Barbara Barrie as Helen, and John Behlmann and Luke Smith as various potential partners, with Trip Cullman directing. The show is sponsored by Broadway’s Best Shows, which previously presented David Mamet’s November on May 8 with John Malkovich, Patti LuPone, Dylan Baker, Ethan Phillips, and Michael Nichols and will next stream A. R. Gurney’s Love Letters, starring Bryan Cranston and Sally Field, directed by Jerry Zaks, on May 21. “Seeing Significant Other for the second time was like reconnecting with old friends,” I wrote back in 2017. I can’t wait to see how I feel when I see it for the third time, from the comfort of my chair in front of my desktop computer, a friendly cat on my lap.