JOB, Starring Peter Friedman and Sydney Lemmon, Brings the Digital Age to Broadway on Opening Night

JOB, Max Wolf Friedlich's suspenseful two-hander starring Peter Friedman and Sydney Lemmon, celebrated its Broadway opening at the Hayes Theater on July 30. Directed by Michael Herwitz, the play mines the dark corners of internet culture over the course of a crisis therapy session. It had its world premiere in fall 2023 at Soho Playhouse, followed by a second stint at the Connelly Theater before transferring to the Hayes this summer. The Broadway Show was on hand on opening night to speak to the team behind this grassroots success. 

"I think the writing resonates with young people," said Lemmon, who makes her principal Broadway debut with this production as Jane, a tech worker itching to get back to her job after a breakdown. "It's exciting to have a young, new playwright on Broadway. That's thrilling." Friedman, who speaks for the pre-internet generation as her therapist Lloyd, added, "The writing is so good. Not just clever—smart."

"We don't actually see a lot of plays that bring us very deeply into the mind of a 27-year-old person who grew up on the internet and sees no distinction between the digital space and real space," Herwitz commented. "Those two things aren't separate anymore." 

As for Friedlich, his aims as a playwright are modest. "I write for my friends," he said. "My thesis as an artist is wanting to get young people engaged in theater. And my thesis as a person is wanting to make my friends proud and make my friends laugh."