Theater review: ‘Lobby Hero’ at Pacific Stages
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Kenneth Lonergan’s very fine, very funny “Lobby Hero,†which had its off-Broadway premiere in the spring of 2001, explores the moral relativism of a group of blue-collar New Yorkers.
Lonergan’s modestly scaled and pithy four-person play offers a scathingly amusing look at the depths to which ordinary people will descend in their frantic quest for self-justification.
Jeff (Edward Tournier), a lobby guard at a Manhattan high-rise, is a chatty loser who takes nothing very seriously. Not so Jeff’s martinet boss, William (Kareem Ferguson), a security “captain†with rigid ethical standards. When William bends his principles to give his criminal brother an alibi, Jeff, in turn, betrays William’s confidence to Dawn (Dana Lynn Bennett), a rookie police officer who then betrays Jeff’s confidence to get back at her highly decorated partner/lover, Bill (Nick Mennell), whose behavior constitutes one long string of duplicity and betrayal.
There are no real heroes here, and no true villains either, just nimble moral equivocators who tap-dance their way through the ever-shifting rationales of Lonergan’s keenly observed social satire.
Unfortunately, in his staging at Pacific Stages – the first full-scale production in this new El Segundo venue – director Robert Bailey short-changes his material, allowing his cast to turn in serviceable yet stiff portrayals that lack crucial subtext. The exception is Mennell, who captures the bluff narcissism of his character, a double-dealing scoundrel who sincerely believes himself to be the nicest guy he knows.
– F. Kathleen Foley
“Lobby Hero,†Pacific Stages, 2041 Rosecrans Ave. #170, El Segundo. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Fridays, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 5 p.m. Sundays. Ends March 21. $34.99. (310) 868-2631. www.pacificstages.org. Running time: 2 hours.