The gay guy finally gets to be Julia Roberts (or Janeane Garofalo circa The Truth About Cats And Dogs) in Significant Other, Joshua Harmon’s smart, funny, bracingly sardonic romcom now getting a terrific East Coast-cast West Coast Premiere at the Geffen.

 29-year-old Jordan Berman (Will Von Vogt) has been wishing and hoping and thinking and praying and planning and dreaming for Mr. Right’s kisses to start for at least as long as his three best girlfriends, but with considerably less luck.

 It hardly seems fair that the unrepentantly self-centered Kiki (Keilly McQuail) should be the first to celebrate her engagement, or that Vanessa (Vella Lovell) and Laura (Melanie Field) should find their own romantic prospects that much brighter than their college bestie.

 Then again, when a gay guy spends all his time with members of the opposite sex when what he’s really dreaming about is a same-sex member, the chances of finding a man are slim to none.

 And so poor Will is stuck crushing on an office colleague who may not even be into guys, or finding himself decidedly unattracted to the one coworker so gay you could spot it a mile away, or hoping that the lone same-sex-oriented male guest at Kiki’s wedding might be up his alley.

 Slim chances indeed, which is why whenever Grandma Helene (Concetta Tomei) asks her favorite grandbaby about his “social life,” Jordan would rather immerse himself in faded family photos than answer.

Take away the gay and playwright Harmon’s latest could just as easily play as an old-fashioned hetero romcom with an ugly-duckling “Jordana” envying her hotter gal pals’ success at love and marriage, that’s how refreshingly incidental our leading man’s sexual orientation is to his string of failures to find his other half.

 Individual scenes scintillate and sizzle, from Jordan’s inch-by-inch description of the office hunk he’s seen emerging soaked from a swim, to his plans to slow dance with Laura to an intentionally ironic “Because You Loved Me” at their if-nothing-else-works-out wedding, to his vain attempts to resist sending the “I can’t stop thinking of you” email that each and every one of his girlfriends tells him should never ever be sent.

As in the 2015 Geffen smash Bad Jews, Harmon reveals a gift for creating authentic, flawed characters ranging from manic, narcissistic party girl Kiki to outspoken, semi-suicidal Vanessa to (above all) shy, neurotic Jordan, whose obsession with out-of-his-league men seems nowhere bound.

 Even Laura, the best friend any gay man could ever wish for, may not be all that reliable should her own romantic bells start to ring, and if Granny is steadfastly supportive, she won’t be around forever.

 Though L.A. audiences will have to wait to see local talent given their deserved crack at Harmon’s terrifically rendered characters, there can be no faulting the Geffen cast’s all-around sensational performances under Brooklyn-based Stephen Brackett’s effervescent direction.

Field in particular commands the stage when defending Laura’s right to be loved and fulfilled. Lovell and McQuail snap, crackle, and pop as the first and second to wed, Tomei is grand-maternal warmth and wisdom personified, and Preston Martin and John Garet Stoker create between them a half-dozen distinctly delicious men of all colors of gay, straight, and in-between.

Above all there is Von Vogt’s bravura star turn as Jordan, a role he plays unapologetically warts and all, and never more so than when a no-longer-around Laura dares still call herself his “best friend” and the Chicago-based actor shows off the kind of from-the-gut acting that wins awards.

 A top-notch, also mostly outsourced production design (Sibyl Wickersheimer’s set, Bobby Frederick Tilley’s costumes, Eric Southern’s lighting, and Stowe Nelson sound) give Significant Other a Broadway-caliber look.

Casting is by Phyllis Schuringa, CSA. Martin understudies the role of Jordan. Bree Sherry is production stage manager and Jessica R. Aguilar is assistant stage manager.

Joshua Harmon’s Bad Jews revealed a significant new voice in American comedy. A gay romcom whose time has come, Significant Other earns abundant laughter and cheers all its own.

Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood.
www.geffenplayhouse.com

–Steven Stanley
April 12, 2018
Photos: Chris Whitaker

Tags: Geffen Playhouse, Joshua Harmon, Los Angeles Theater Review