San Francisco, CA
at San Francisco Playhouse
We walked away from the theater disappointed that a witty, entertaining evening ended with the message that straight millennials will couple up in happy marriage while their gay contemporaries are destined to remain single and desperate.
As much as I love throwback memories, reliving the experience of watching a negative stereotype of lonely queens wasn’t what I expected,… or wanted.
The play watches four best friends, three women and one gay man, navigate social life in their late 20’s. The four start out spending all their time together and being jaded about traditional dating/family. But, one-by-one the women fall in love with a man and get married.
Our gay protagonist juvenilely attempts contact with lust objects in ways designed to fail.
At the end of the play the women’s lives have changed, matured. The gay guy is still immature, and now he’s facing stereotypical life of a lonely queen.
We expected a better story. I demand a better story in 2019.
There were a lot of fun, witty, well-acted, enjoyable moments. Kyle Cameron as gay Jordan did a terrific job carrying most of the dialogue of the show. The characters felt comfortably overwrought as they progressed through the scenes in a pleasant, predictable, comical procession.
The crafts were fine. Everything except the story was fine.
I’ve looked at reviews of other performances of Significant Other and I am appalled at the lack of acknowledgement of the main theme of the play. In fact, several reviews touted the breakthrough nature of the gay character. In SO Jordan is not relegated to being a bit-playing sidekick, the reviewers applaud. Instead, in SO he is the main character.
So? A loser gay man in the spotlight is a triumph of Pride?
I simply cannot recommend spending time or money on a gay-bashing piece of theater, no matter how wittily it is written and delivered.
Ozdachs rating: