Lobby Hero is a play by Kenneth Lonergan. It premiered off-Broadway in 2001.

Production history

Lobby Hero premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, on March 13, 2001, and closed on April 15, 2001,^[1] reopening at the John Houseman Theatre on May 8, 2001, and closing on September 2, 2001.^[2] The cast featured Glenn Fitzgerald as Jeff, Heather Burns as Dawn, Tate Donovan as Bill, and Dion Graham as William. It was directed by Mark Brokaw.^[3][4]

The UK première was staged at the Donmar Warehouse. It began previews on April 4, opened on April 10 and closed on May 4, 2002. The cast included David Tennant (Jeff), Charlotte Randle (Dawn), Dominic Rowan (Bill), and Gary McDonald (William), and was again directed by Mark Brokaw.^[5] This production transferred to the New Ambassadors Theatre on June 26 (opening July 1), and ran until August 10, 2002.^[6]

A revival opened on Broadway on March 26, 2018, at the Helen Hayes Theatre; it starred Michael Cera (Jeff), Bel Powley (Dawn), Chris Evans (Bill), and Brian Tyree Henry (William). The production, directed by Trip Cullman, ran until May 13, 2018.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Synopsis

The show follows a security guard in his late 20s, his strict supervisor, and an overbearing cop and his rookie female partner. The show is set in a foyer of a middle-income Manhattan apartment building in the middle of the night.^[11]

Character summaries

• Jeff – 27-year-old security guard, unsuccessful with women
• Dawn – a female police officer in her 20s
• Bill – Dawn's senior partner, who shows a romantic interest in her
• William – Jeff's African-American boss

Reviews

Toby Young said in a review in The Spectator, "Lobby Hero is a fantastic play but I'd be hard pushed to say why. You can tell it's good because, within about five minutes, any sense you have of being a member of the audience, sitting down and watching a group of actors perform on stage, has vanished.... In what amounts to an out-of-body experience, you're totally absorbed in what's going on...Lonergan is particularly good, both here and in This Is Our Youth, at showing how good intentions can be undermined by unconscious desires. Few of his characters are capable of resisting their own malignant impulses."^[11]

In her review of the 2018 revival, Marilyn Stasio wrote: "Set in the lobby of a generic Manhattan apartment building, the play looks both kindly and critically upon the kind of characters Lonergan loves to write: working-class stiffs, generally decent people who are unexpectedly challenged by issues of ethics....Helmer Trip Cullman does his best work with small, tight ensembles like this one, so there’s no slack in the emotional tension and no escape from the sticky web that even nice people get tangled up in when they tell lies – especially the lies they tell themselves."^[12]

Awards and nominations

References