Max Wolf Friedlich’s play Job had the kind of off-Broadway success last year of which young writers dream. It sold out each of its extensions at the miniscule Soho Playhouse before quickly booking the East Village’s larger Connelly Theater, where it continued playing to packed houses. Its Broadway transfer, then, was inevitable, and its opening night at the intimate Hayes Theater on Tuesday was as much a victory lap as an announcement of its arrival in the canon. (To emphasize this, copies of the play’s recent Samuel French printing were strewn across the after-party–more on that later).
Two people whose attendance confirms its status as a downtown hit made legit? Marla Mindelle (creator of Titanique) and Broadway impresario Jordan Roth were in the audience, as were vaudevillian Bill Irwin and Meena Harris (a producer and, yes, Kamala’s niece). And Dagmara Dominczyk supported her Succession co-stars, the play’s Peter Friedman and Sydney Lemmon, along with her husband, Patrick Wilson.
Following the 80-minute play’s 8 PM curtain call, guests moved to the Bowery Hotel’s indoor-outdoor terrace, where hats with the show’s logo were handed out with bubbling Champagne flutes. Maia Novi, just back from scoping out London venues for a possible pond-hopping transfer of her play Invasive Species, should know something about branding: her buzzy work had many celebs repping it via headwear earlier this summer. (Incidentally, someone’s hair later caught on fire when it hovered too close to an open candle by the bar. Should’ve worn a hat…)
Before the party got to that point, it presented the select few people at the Venn Diagrammatic intersection of enjoying seeing Twitter expat Jaboukie Young-White and venerated Tony-winner Deirdre O’Connell mere feet from each other the chance to revel in that moment. Dev Hynes, who composed original music for the play’s Broadway transfer, hung around It couple Ludwig Hurtado and Hari Nef, who was chatting up writer Carl Swanson.
As the Job team took photos and greeted well-wishers, another couple entered the scene: Justin Theroux and Nicole Brydon Bloom, whose Gilded Age co-stars Ben Ahlers and Louisa Jacobson were also mingling by the bar. Lemmon, it must be said, looked radiant in a black sequin dress complemented by a divine lace neckpiece. The play’s director, Michael Herwitz, toasted with actor Jared Reinfeldt (Capote vs. The Swans, and a member of the production team) and his husband Sam Leicht, and Richard Kind (!) and his daughter weaved their way past Kelly Bensimon.
“Is there anything more gay than believing in theatre enough to invest in it?” asked a manager friend to an apparently straight producer. Cue Succession co-star Juliana Canfield’s entrance, alongside friend and fellow Stereophonic darling Sarah Pidgeon, around 11 PM. Shortly after, the two mobilized revelers to keep the party going at nearby Ray’s dive just as the lights started coming up.