Slight “Lobby Hero” manages some conversational charm

Jeff (Trevor Hart) is a 27-year-old dishonorably discharged Navy vet taking the graveyard shift at a condo lobby for a low-rent security firm so he can save up enough to get a place of his own and start his life anew. His greatest excitement is fantasizing about Dawn (Ashley O’Connor), the rookie cop who’s been coming around lately when her partner/mentor (Brandon Prado) stops in to visit a sexually notorious resident. But when Jeff’s supervisor (Nate Memba) spills the beans about some family legal trouble, Jeff’s got a lot more to think about than what it would be like to have Dawn handcuff him.

Although Lobby Hero ultimately attempts to pass as a meditation on ethics — its climax pivoting on what Jeff will or won’t tell the cops — it’s more likely to please simply on the basis of dialog, as the characters try to hash out how best to move forward in life when they’re not sure what they’re doing. And considering that the only other “action” consists of characters sitting down, standing up, and entering/exiting the aforesaid lobby (oh, and walking in/out of the elevator), that dialog is all.

On that score, playwright Kenneth Lonergan gets mixed results. Although Lobby Hero is certainly not his best work (his Oscar-winning screenplay for Manchester by the Sea is in another league on every level), it does feature something you almost never see onstage: people talking at the same time and cutting each other off. Common as this is in real life, it’s so rare is in the plays I see ‘round these parts that during Act 1 I thought perhaps it was unintentional (though nonetheless effective for that); however, Act 2 left no doubt that this was Lonergan’s writing, which was aptly delivered by the cast, particularly Hart and O’Connor. Seeing/hearing them talk over is the highlight of the show. I don’t mean that has backhanded praise: it’s a real treat. Director Carl DaSilva deserves a share of credit, clearly having coached his cast on this point. And the performance I saw was a preview (i.e., prior to opening night), which means the whole cast is likely to loosen up even more during the run, thus improving on the best thing in Lonergan’s script. 

Although David Scaglione’s set is lifelike enough that we can look at it from curtain-up to curtain-down without the seams showing too much, there is one obvious gaffe: the front door to the building says “LOBBY,” rather than the name of the building. Not sure how that got past DaSilva and the rest of the crew. 

But this show’s biggest failing is its ending, which is so slight that you’re a bit puzzled when the cast is suddenly taking their bows. I’m sympathetic to DaSilva’s plight — Lonergan’s given him almost nothing to work with — but if you take on a play with this problem, you need a solution. Here’s to hoping DaSilva has come up with something better by the time you read these words.

Lobby Hero doesn’t go deep, but it is not without surface pleasures. And in its best moments, this is live theatre delivered in a way you don’t come across all that often.

Lobby Hero at Long Beach Playhouse

Times: Fri–Sat 8:00 p.m., Sun 2:00 p.m.
The show runs through August 16.
Cost: $20 to $30 (plus $4 fee per seat if ordering online)
Details: (562) 494-1014; LBplayhouse.org 
Venue: Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach