Theater review: Actor’s Express’ ‘Significant Other’ mostly trifles

Through June 19. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. $22-$38. Actor's Express (at the King Plow Arts Center), 887 W. Marietta St., Atlanta. 404-607-7469, www.actors-express.com.

Bottom line: Slightly insignificant.

From Joshua Harmon, the writer of last year's smash-hit comedy "Bad Jews" at Actor's Express, now comes the seemingly kinder and gentler "Significant Other." The new play charts the romantic frustrations and yearnings of the lovelorn Jordan Berman — an unattached gay man of a certain age (all of 29), who finds it increasingly difficult to keep grinning and bearing it, as each of his three best girlfriends gradually leaves him for lives of marriage and motherhood.

Director Jessica Holt’s Express production emphasizes the wilder and crazier aspects of Harmon’s script. In a succession of scenes set at various bachelorette parties, weddings and baby showers, the spirited rapport that exists between Jordan and the girls often manifests as something of a cross between the broad antics of “Bridesmaids” and the casual candor of “Sex and the City.”

Holt casts Lee Osorio as the show’s leading man. He’s a moderately personable stage presence, but his performance tends to register most persuasively in terms of projecting the character’s lighthearted levity, as opposed to capturing a lot of the deep-seated angst that’s presumably festering beneath the surface.

The central matter of Jordan’s failing love life — and his struggle to transform or transcend it — comes across like an irritating nuisance to him as much as a soul-searching dilemma, more trivial and trifling than introspective or insightful. Late in the play, when Jordan finally pours on the pent-up dramatic fireworks, his outburst feels as much like a childish temper tantrum as a well-founded reflection of quiet desperation.

Meant to serve as a counterbalance to the relative frivolity of his “social life,” a number of sentimental scenes between Jordan and his wise, world-weary grandmother drag and fall flat – surprisingly so, considering that she’s portrayed by the ordinarily fine Judy Leavell. “Life is a long book,” she observes to him at one point. “You’re just in a bad chapter.”

As played here, the characters of his three confidantes range from entirely too much (a loud and abrasive Cara Mantella) to not nearly enough (a bland and inconsequential Brittany Inge). For her part, somewhere in the middle, Diany Rodriguez is just right as the closest of Jordan’s friends.

The other two men in the ensemble appear as various prospective husbands and love interests. It isn’t a very big stretch to see Edward McCreary posturing again as a scantily clad hunk; he often seems to be cast on the basis of his chiseled physique as much as for his acting diversity. But Jeremy Aggers delivers a singularly splendid change of pace in one of his roles as Jordan’s catty co-worker.

There’s nothing funny about it, when Jordan eventually confesses, “No one’s ever told me they love me.” In his search for a romantic relationship that might “validate” him, we ought to feel something more genuine and meaningful for him than “Significant Other” truly enables us to.

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