Shattered Globe Beautifully Revives a Subtle Masterpiece in Lobby Hero

(L-R) Adam Schulmerich, Elliot Esquivel (center) and Emma Jo Boyden (foreground)  in Shattered Globe Theatre’s Lobby Hero   –    Michael  Brosilow photography

Kenneth Lonergan could be called a very self-effacing playwright.  With a long career, a slew of award nominations for his plays and an Academy Award for writing Manchester by the Sea’s screenplay in 2017, he knows how to tell a very compelling story.  But when talking about his achievements, he sounds like a person who’s simply being attentive to the rigors of his craft.  Thanks to Shattered Globe Theater’s production of Lonergan’s Lobby Hero now being staged at Theater Wit on Belmont, we’re getting a vastly rewarding reminder of how wonderfully he makes art mirror life. And under the adroit direction of Nate Santana, it comes packaged as an evening of solid entertainment.

A work that originated as a short one act writing project that later blossomed into a full-length play, Lobby Hero’s lens focuses on the emotional dynamics between people, a specialty of the playwright.  All action takes place in, or just outside, the lobby of a Manhattan residential mid-rise.  As a native New Yorker, it’s a terrain Lonergan knows well.  The lobby’s cookie cutter bland and during the overnight hours; almost ghostly quiet.  That’s when Jeff (Elliot Esquivel) is on duty, the graveyard shift, as the security guard.  Nine months on the job, and he’s not making a very good impression with his boss, William (Terrence Sims).

(L-R) Elliot Esquivel, Terrence Sims, Emma Jo Boyden (in background) and Adam Schulmerich in Shattered Globe Theatre’s Lobby Hero   –    Michael  Brosilow photography

An amalgam of oddly opposing traits, Jeff doesn’t have a lot of ambition or direction; yet he’s extremely loquacious and can talk incessantly.  Something he doesn’t have a chance to do very much in his line of work or during that time of night.  Determined, focused and a stickler for following the rules, as captain of his company’s security detail that man sentry desks in the city, William’s the antithesis of Jeff.   He dutifully and routinely checks in on the guards under his supervision during the late-night hours.  Being found asleep means automatic termination.  And failing to have guests sign visitor logs counts as a serious breach of protocol.  When Jeff fails to have a cop sign in when he stops by to visit a resident in the building; and William discovers that failure, he puts the young guard on notice.

(L-R) Elliot Esquivel, Adam Schulmerich, Terence Sims and Emma Jo Boyden in Shattered Globe Theatre’s Lobby Hero   –    Michael Brosilow photography

As you watch and listen to the two interact, you see that very little of what William says penetrates with Jeff.  He understands completely that the advice and counsel William slips into his harangues are meant to inspire him to be and do more.  But Jeff, in his slightly too big shirt and way too short pants, can’t digest it.  Instead, through disarming jokes and funny quips, he turns it all into fertilizer better suited for a different yard.  That mass of hair piled on his head, his slight frame and his pitch-perfect NY accent, aided and enhanced by Sammi Grant’s excellent tutoring as dialect coach, make Esquivel tailormade for this evocative and strangely enchanting role.  And through his timing, inane gestures and the playwright’s keen dialog; he’s hugely and inescapably funny.  The character’s comedic strength is key to the part and a chief reason why Lobby Hero is considered a comedy.  The subject matter it catches in its net though is far darker.

(L) Elliot Esquivel and Emma Jo Boyden in Shattered Globe Theatre’s Lobby Hero – Michael Brosilow photography

It begins with William’s dilemma surrounding a wayward brother implicated in a gruesome murder and expands to take on misogyny and the code of silence within the ranks of the police. Was his brother involved?  William knows he could have been. Knowing very well what can happen to a Black man, innocent or not, who’s cobbled with poor legal representation in a broken judicial system; William is still forced to ask himself how far he can go to protect family.   

In another twist, a young rookie cop, Dawn ((Emma Jo Boyden) is so enamored with her partner, Bill (Adam Sculmerich), she thinks she’s in love him.  That notion will dissipate quickly when she discovers why Bill, highly decorated and virtually revered within the department, is visiting that friend in Jeff’s building while she cools her heels in the lobby. Their partnership will devolve into something toxic and dangerous with Jeff, due to circumstances and his predilection for talking, right in the middle of it all.  

Both plot points become significantly more riveting when they converge.

(L-R) Elliot Esquivel and Adam Schulmerich in Shattered Globe Theatre’s Lobby Hero   –    Michael Brosilow photography

Jose Manuel Diaz-Soto’s tight, beautifully configured set provides the ideal backdrop for this quirky, highly intelligent dramedy that so ingeniously exposes damning flaws within our natures and our society.  Without passing judgement, they’re shown to be what they are; realities with which we must contend to survive.  Very much to its credit, Lobby Hero graciously provides discreet pointers on how that’s best done.

Esquivel as Jeff is a standout and a must see in this production.  Equally strong, the performances of Boyden, Sculmerich and Sims are all extremely admirable.   With Lobby Hero in the mix, the new year’s theater offerings are proving exceptional.  But it’s the play’s unconventional use of humor that lands it in peerless territory and makes it an indisputable delight.