Four flawed characters populate the otherwise vacant lobby of a Manhattan residential apartment building in Kenneth Lonergan’s compelling if meandering comic drama Lobby Hero. Each of them has justification for his moral transgressions, but we soon begin to question whether any of them deserves the designation of hero.
Unlikely to merit hero status is the play’s central character, Jeff (Britt Michael Gordon), a 27-year-old slacker previously drummed out of the Navy for smoking pot while on sentry duty. Now puzzled about his purpose in life, he has settled into a going-nowhere job as an overnight security guard, a glorified title for doorman. Then there is his supervisor, William (Jovon Jacobs), a stickler for policy and rules, caught in a quandary when his brother — accused of murder — needs him to supply a phony alibi.
Filling out Lobby Hero’s foursome is a pair of actual cops, hot-headed veteran officer Bill (Tim Altmeyer), an inveterate liar, and his female rookie partner Dawn (Elisabeth Yancey), facing disciplinary action for using excessive force that sent a perp to the hospital. Motor-mouthed Jeff has a crush on Dawn, even before he knows her name. She, however, is enamored of Bill, who has already lured her into bed and will threaten to withhold his character endorsement of her at her probation hearing.
Lonergan (Oscar-winning screenwriter of Manchester By the Sea) is in his wheelhouse here crafting these blue-collar losers facing ethical dilemmas. Despite their shortcomings, his characters are easy to identify with, as he draws us in and asks us to consider what we would do in their situations.
Lobby Hero premiered off-Broadway in 2001 and was revived on Broadway five years ago. It was originally scheduled by Palm Beach Dramaworks for the end of its 2019-2020 season, but scrubbed by COVID cancellation. The West Palm Beach company now returns to the play, again directed by its resident stager, J. Barry Lewis, on the attractive, if impersonal, set designed by Victor A. Becker, who died earlier this year. A frequent member of the PBD design team, this production is dedicated in Becker’s honor.
Lewis starts his first-rate cast on a slow simmer, but never doubt that matter will eventually boil over with issues of the justice system, race, sexual tension, police code of loyalty and gender bias. As dramatically weighty as these topics are, Lonergan finds ways to leaven them with humor, delivered by these actors with unforced reality.
Chief among them is Gordon’s Jeff, a jumble of insecurity, whose moral compass will be sorely tested. Having been told about William’s alibi lie, we can see the struggle on Gordon’s face to keep the incriminating secret. Much of the wordy second act is dialogue between Gordon and Yancey’s Dawn, a crucial duet that she manages to keep from slipping into caricature. As Bill, Altmeyer has a few flashy temper tantrums which he delivers with full fury, while Jacobs has a more internal assignment, preoccupied as William is by his brother’s legal quandary.
As usual, Dramaworks’ design elements are well thought out and executed, particularly Brian O’Keefe’s costumes, like the oversized uniform that weighs down diminutive Dawn.
More than most playwrights, Lonergan has made the transition from the stage to the screen with seeming ease, but a skillfully written play like Lobby Hero should remind him to return to the theater often.
LOBBY HERO, Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Through Sun., Oct. 29. $89. 561-514-4042, or visit www.palmbeachdramaworks.org.