JOB Star Peter Friedman Returns to Broadway with Succession Fame, But He'll Always Be a Downtown Darling

A psychological thrill ride is a rarity on Broadway, which helps explain why Max Wolf Friedlich’s new play JOB (as in work, not the Old Testament book) is attracting an enthusiastic audience at the Hayes Theater. This twisty two-hander stars Peter Friedman as a boomer therapist with the power to decide whether a millennial tech worker (Sydney Lemmon) who experienced a breakdown at the office can safely return to her position at a major Silicon Valley company.

Any further description of their 80-minute encounter invites spoilers, which makes a conversation with Friedman tricky, but he’s used to that. After all, he spent four seasons in the spoiler-packed phenomenon Succession as Frank Vernon, Logan Roy’s semi-loyal COO. Back on Broadway for the first time in almost 20 years, Friedman chatted about his distinguished theatrical career, which includes a 1998 Best Actor Tony nomination for playing Tateh in Ragtime, and finding fame on TV in his golden years.

How does it feel to go from the juiciest, most secret-filled TV show to this juicy, secret-filled play?

It feels great to come back to Broadway this way because I actually get to, you know, act for a nice long period of time. It’s great to stretch out into a role, although I can’t say much about it.

What did you like about the script?

When you first read something, you’re looking for a sound—words you haven’t heard before; ideas put together well—and this play certainly had that, with great turns of phrase all the way through. You go, “That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking, but smarter.” [Playwright Max Wolf Friedlich] got both the older and the younger points of view. I said yes after the first reading.

It's unusual to see a theater piece that could be classified as a thriller.

It’s rare, yes. I remember a few, going to the theater from the time I was 16, like Sleuth, but they were bigger deals. This is tight and small and scrappy. I wish I could see it with an audience because I’d like to know what they’re feeling.

The response is vocal and the crowd skews young, which must be fun.

Well, that was the group that started us off a year ago at the Soho Playhouse, friends and family of the author and the producers. In previews, they invited all the people they knew, including some influencers, and it blew up from there.

There’s a lot of talk in the play about social media. Your wife [actress Caitlin O’Connell] and daughter [actress Sadie Friedman, whose mom is Joan Allen] are on Instagram. You have no desire to join them?

I don’t. Sometimes my wife will tell me that my daughter has posted something, but I really don’t check in. I’m holding down the fort for those who don’t give a f**k. [laughs]

“Chemistry” may be the wrong word, but you work beautifully with Sydney Lemmon.

She’s a kindred spirit. She takes the work seriously and is really good. I’ve seen her speech at the end of the play a billion times, and it’s always different. She’s just the kind of person you want to work with.

In addition to Sydney, the author and director [Michael Herwitz] of JOB are quite young. Do you enjoy that dynamic?

As long as they’re smart, you bet. It’s a real blessing for someone my age. Going back to the aughts, my career was sinking. I needed to make money, and I would go out to California for pilot season and get absolutely nothing, missing six weeks with my 10- or 11-year-old daughter each time. It was awful. At that point, my current wife said, “Why don’t you take those little off-Broadway things they keep asking you about?” It meant nothing in terms of money, but I was dying, so I did, and that’s how I met Sam Gold and Annie Baker and Amy Herzog and Carolyn Cantor and that amazing group. Working with people a generation younger than me just made my life. [Fast forward to] when my daughter was studying theater at USC, every third play they would bring into the class was one of the plays I had done. I loved that, and now I’m working with the next group. It’s very cool.

The Succession cast was packed with theater actors, and now everyone is doing theater again. Do you keep up with one another?

We are on a text chain, yes, and there’s a lot going on at the moment about the election. It was just a wonderful combination of people. They are all sweethearts.

With Succession and an arc on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, how satisfying is it to achieve career recognition after, let’s say, age 60?

Let's say after 70! [laughs] It feels very nice to go to the grocery store and have someone say hi. I have no problem with it, and I put it in the right place. It’s all friendly, people are very kind, so it’s all good.

Switching gears, what was it like to revisit Ragtime in concert after 25 years?

Very exciting—scary exciting. I had to make sure that I was singing okay, and I eventually got to a good place. It was a wonderful evening, and I hope we all get to see the film or the documentary of it someday, because they made both.

Lea Michele, who played your daughter when the show opened in 1998, has spoken fondly of the bond you two formed.

The price of admission to do Ragtime was a two-year commitment, including a year in Toronto, and a lot of life happens in that amount of time. Lea, this kid—to me, she’s still a kid—was one of the very best partners I’ve ever had on stage. Like Sydney, she was totally there. What did she have, two words to speak? But she was in it with me the whole time. I loved her.

Well, it's great to have you back on Broadway. What are you enjoying most about this experience?

The trajectory of this show is awfully tasty, and to see these young producers push this little stone all the way is wonderful. The play deserves it. The response was so great downtown with a younger crowd, many of whom said that this was the first play they had ever seen. It’s like welcoming them to this thing called theater, and I love that.