PicksInSix Review: LOBBY HERO - Shattered Globe Theatre
Ethical Choices Drive Compelling ‘LOBBY HERO’
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton
Shattered Globe Theatre’s latest offering “Lobby Hero," a taut, fascinating piece delivered in an almost improvisational style with several fine performances, is playing at Theater Wit through March 1. The play is written by the accomplished director/playwright/screenwriter/actor Kenneth Lonergan and directed in a tight, emotional fashion by SGT member Nate Santana. “Lobby Hero” is an almost claustrophobic tale of mostly honest, hard-working folk confronted by ethical choices that somehow wind up in the same brew, even as they seem to tell different stories—an admirable feat.
All the action takes place in the lobby of a high-rise apartment building in the heart of Manhattan. Jeff (Elliott Esquivel in a full, grab-your-attention performance) is a security guard in the lobby who dreams of bigger things, although he’s not always sure of what they are. Jeff uses his sense of humor as his shield, his badge of honor, his protection against people getting too close, even as he earnestly yearns for that human intimacy. His boss William (a smooth, yet somber Terence Sims) is unhappy with Jeff’s work attitude and performance, but he somehow gets past those obstacles to see that Jeff is, in essence, a sweet young man trying to find his own way. William is well-established in his job, having worked his way up to a supervisor position after years in the company, and he finds himself sharing quite a dilemma with Jeff in a problem with William’s brother. You see, his brother has committed a very violent crime and wants William to help with an alibi for protection.
Meanwhile in a seemingly unrelated turn, two police officers at totally different phases of their careers have just arrived outside that apartment building. Bill (SGT Ensemble Member Adam Schulmerich, appropriately cynical and tough), a jaded sergeant about to reach a new level of accomplishment in the precinct, is the senior partner to Dawn (the marvelous Emma Jo Boyden), who’s been on the job for three months and has just knocked out a suspect with her nightstick in a previous situation. She’s pretty shaken by it all and wonders if her job, probationary as it is, will be in jeopardy. Bill calms her, saying he has her back and will help protect her against any inquiry that will come. Another wrinkle here is that the two cops seem to have feelings for one another, even as Bill is married with children. The two then go inside and Bill goes upstairs to visit a friend… a friend with whom he’s having sex. And Dawn is left down in the lobby with Jeff, who begins to form a romantic approach to see if he can gain her favor.
That moment begins a slow melding of the two plotlines into one storyline. Jeff unwittingly shares with Dawn that this has happened before, something that shakes her naivete. Her views on Bill suddenly find a new stance as Bill gets off the elevator in the lobby, finished with his ‘visit’. As they get outside, a betrayed Dawn confronts him. Bill begins a confession about the woman upstairs and her husband Jim, who, Bill says, is having a problem that he is helping him get through. Only there is no Jim up there; Jeff tiptoes out to tell Bill, in the middle of his discussion with Dawn, that “Mrs.” whatever her name is upstairs has called down to let him know that Bill forgot his hat. Bill is busted, tells Dawn to wait outside, and then he goes in to harass Jeff for telling secrets he shouldn’t be telling, intimidating him markedly in the process.
Each character here now has a serious ethical impasse to negotiate. William is forced to make a choice about what to do with and for his brother—tell the truth or provide the alibi. Bill is now having to deal with the results of his own wandering eye, which exposes the prospect for ever-ripening discovery of other doubtful career moments that could derail his professional ambitions. Dawn, wide-eyed and principled, continues to take the abuse from her partner until she knows the entire story—not of Bill, but of William and his brother in a case that has headline-making potential at the risk of her own job. And then who does she tell? Jeff, in all this and despite his own meandering competence, has now become the keeper of all the secrets in this narrative. Does he share with Dawn what he's been told about William’s choice to gain her favor, but lose his job? Can he survive all this and still face Bill, who would certainly seek some kind of retribution against him? What about his own simple dreams, which consist basically of getting his own apartment and that’s pretty much it?
Director Santana has encouraged here a lot of characters talking over each other, which creates an interesting, in-the-moment feel on José Manuel Díaz-Soto’s impressive set design. Santana cinematically utilizes lighting (a comfortable design here by Ellie Fey) to draw the audience into critically intimate moments and then expands on the comedy in an occasional and sudden full brightness onstage. It allows the audience the chance to be swept along without feeling manipulated by the stagecraft, and it’s all such fun to observe.
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com
PHOTO | Michael Brosilow
Shattered Globe Theatre
presents
LOBBY HERO
Theater Wit
1229 W Belmont Ave Chicago
through March 1, 2025
WEBSITE
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