Andrew Justvig has given us the basis of a very good play in The Anxiety of Laughing, but it still needs work to make it all that it can be and, perhaps, make it into a seminal work.

Justvig has done a great job navigating the problems of writing a character, Joey Hill, based, no matter how loosely, on the life of the author.  Usually, these exercises devolve into a pity or blame the world party, but Justvig does none of that.  He has also done a solid job writing his minor supporting characters, Michelle Phillips, Joey’s Fiancée’s mother and Lisa Marie, the manager of a comedy club where Joey is MC and Principal Morgan, the principal of the school where Joey, at the beginning of the play, is the interim head of the theater department and Joey’s foil.  What Justvig does not do is write the role of Leah, Joey’s fiancée, well after the accident that leaves her paralyzed.  I will get back to that later.

First, for a minor suggested change Justvig could clarify that he is not being offered the permanent job as head of the theater department because of ableism.  This could be done by having Principal Morgan inform him that he is not getting the job as head of the Theater department as the curtain is coming down at the conclusion of a very successful school musical that he directed.  As currently written, there might be real reasons for not giving him the job.

Second, Leah should only be paralyzed from the waist down.  Justvig has many places where Leah uses or attempts to use her hands, and the audience is not going to buy the inconsistency. Plus, you need to allow her some, no matter how little, hope for getting “healthy” again.

Most importantly though, I am not convinced that Justvig can find the proper empathy for making the pain (and anger) that Leah is going through more realistic, allowing her to work through all that she has lost.  Of course, rewriting Leah will also require making adjustment to Joey and the other characters she interacts with which Justvig is more than capable of doing.   The only danger of doing this (and it is not a bad thing) is that Leah may become the protagonist and Joey a little less admirable.  That would probably make Anxiety a groundbreaking show.