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Video: Inside Opening Night of JOB
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Aug 2, 2024
The best of Broadway was at the Hayes Theatre last night to celebrate opening night of Job- the new play by Max Wolf Friedlich. Check out video highlights from inside the big day!
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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Following two critically acclaimed sold out runs off Broadway, Maxwell Friedlich's psychological
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thriller Job has come to Broadway, directed by Michael Hurwitz. And we're here on opening night to celebrate with the company led by the show's two stars
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Peter Friedman and Sidney Lemon. It feels lovely. You know, it's a beautiful theater
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The audiences have been wonderful. And I love the play. I love the people I'm working with
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It's all good. Talk about sharing the stage with Sidney, what that has meant with you
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It's a perfect tennis match between the two of you. She's wonderful
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She's, I've seen that, you know, the final aria a million times and it's always different
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Always, always great. What are you enjoying the most about bringing this play to Broadway
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That it brings young people in. It seems to be, you know, younger people seem to get into it
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And when there's a mix of older and younger, it's, it's pretty cool
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I love it. And working with a new playwright, I mean a young playwright, what that's meant to
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because you've worked with everybody. There was a time 15 years ago, it seemed like I was working with all those cool kids
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And I love being asked to be working with one of them now
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You know, it's a lovely new generation, you know. Welcome to Broadway
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It's opening night. How do you feel tonight? I feel so good. It's so thrilling to be here with everybody
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We've worked so hard for so long. And to get this play to the biggest stage, it's just a dream
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This happened really fast. You had two incredible sold-out runs off Broadway
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And now you're on Broadway in like 11 months. Yeah, it doesn't feel fast
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I mean, we've been at this every single day. So it's been a sort of grueling but joyful process
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And it's, it's, it's very unexpected to be here tonight. When you first read the play, what made you say, yes, I have to do this
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And what were your initial reactions? I mean, just parts like this don't really come across your desk very often
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It's so challenging. And so the characters wrestling with so much. To have the opportunity, I just wanted the role so badly
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And to get to work on someone so complicated as Jane has been one of the biggest gifts of my entire career
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I feel really proud of everyone. I don't know, like we, we really started in a basement
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And a lot of our core crew has stayed with us the entire way
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And to have been able to facilitate a lot of Broadway debuts, it's just
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it's the best. And it really does. For a long time, I was like, I don't know what this means
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And being here now, I'm like, this really means something. And I really feel a part of something
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How did you come about to write the show? What, how did it all start for you
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I had a very strange tech job working for this company that built fictional influencers
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the most famous of which was called Lil Michaela. So I had this like weird experience of like being a famous
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19 year old girl on the Internet. And I think a lot of the feelings in the show come from that
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I'm also, you know, I also deal with a lot of anxiety and a lot of the stuff that the character deals with. But
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yeah, I met someone with this job at a party and I just thought it was fascinating
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And then it just all sort of compounds. It feels extraordinary. I made my Broadway debut 20 years ago tonight
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So I'm like over the moon. My friends are here. My family's here. I thought the show was great tonight
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I'm so unbelievably honored and thrilled. Max Friedlich is my best friend and Hannah's one of my best friends
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And Peter and Sydney, we've been doing this for a year. And they're family to me. My stage managers are my best friends
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Like it literally is. We truly are like a bunch of kids who put on a show together downtown
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We raised the money ourselves. We all got paid fifteen hundred dollars
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And now in 11 months, we're on Broadway. I mean, that's crazy
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That's not how it's supposed to go. So I'm just proud of our team. So proud of our team
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Would you just talk briefly about who you play without giving anything away? Talk about who you play
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but what you love about this role is so beautifully written. It's about the words, it's about the words all the way through
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I don't know. I don't know that it's about the role. There's such smart takes on both generations
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And the words are things like you go. I wish I had thought of that
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That's exactly what's what should be said about this. I'm very impressed with his writing
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Sharing the stage with Peter Friedman. It's a perfect tennis match. What is it like sharing the stage with him
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It doesn't get better. I mean, he's beloved. He's one of the most beloved actors in the New York community
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He's he's exceptional. And to get to just look into his eyes and do the play
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it just it takes care of itself. He's a dream. I really believe fervently in being stupid
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And I think a lot of this involves a lot of abject stupidity
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They were like, it's not a good idea to go to Broadway. It's not a good idea to do a second run at the Connelly
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It's not a good idea to do a nonprofit production. And so a playhouse and, you know, I'm really proud
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that we were our own gatekeepers a little bit. And we just kind of said yes to ourselves
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That's how it's done. Yeah. I don't know. Not not enough. I would love I would love to figure out whatever structural ways
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for people to be able to do this more, because I don't think we're like that exceptional
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I'm really proud of the show, but I think that there's like 10 or 20 of these out there
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and they just need a little help. I also love that a very young audience and a new audience
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is coming to see Job. What that means to you is a writer. That is everything
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It's my whole thesis, whatever in life. I started doing theater pretty young
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I had a play at the New York Fringe when I was 17, and I had the experience of like bringing my friends
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who don't really see theater to a play that was about teenagers. And it was just a rush to be
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I was used to being at the theater and being the youngest person there. And it was just such a rush to be there with my peers
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and to have helped. I don't know. I don't want to give us too much credit, but like how young the crowd is
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and the fact that we've been embraced by people in our peer group and in our artistic community and other people who are striving
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and trying to make good work, it's just the best
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