Congratulations to the folks over at T. Schreiber Studio – their production of Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero will extend for four additional performances November 30th through December 3rd at the company’s Gloria Maddox Theatre (151 West 26th Street, 7th Floor). We loved the show and are thrilled that more audiences will be able to experience the show. Read our review here and purchase tickets here.
If you’re fortunate enough to live in one of those apartment buildings with a decent sized lobby, chances are you’ve come across the characters who populate Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero currently running at The Gloria Maddox Theatre. At first glance there’s nothing special about this lobby. Neat, a bit shabby, in need of a coat of paint and some new furniture, it’s maintained by the security officer who sits behind the desk there.
Who is that guy? The one asking your guests to sign in, accepting your packages for you, holding the door open for you when your hands are full? What’s his story? Unless you’ve had more than a perfunctory interaction with your lobby security guard chances are it would be as disconcerting to run into him out of uniform as it was for you when, as a child, you saw your teacher in the grocery story. Yet you know he must have a life when he’s not in uniform, right?
What’s his name again? This lobby’s hero is named Jeff. Jeff (a natural, solid Michael Black) is working the graveyard shift and seems friendly enough; affable if a bit plain. But he’s as ubiquitous to us as any other guy who sits in a lobby in a bland uniform with a blank stare and a deliberate smile. Jeff spends his time thumbing through a paper back, catching a nap (if he can get away with it) and keeping an eye out for his manager, William (Nasay Ano) who is working the graveyard shift to “weed out the bad apples”. Every so often he gets a visit from the local cops on the beat as they make their rounds. That would be Officer Bill (Joshua Sienkiewicz) and his young partner Officer Dawn (Olivia Rorick). For Dawn this is a routine check-in, but for Bill his stop to Apartment 22J is of a more personal nature.
Cops and guards – just some of the random people you pass every day. As long as they keep trouble out of your way, you’re happy. But what if trouble follows them?
Goodnight Lovin' Trail Featuring Nic Mevoli & Olivia Rorick (Photo by David Anthony)
Have you ever stupidly misplaced something that was really important to you? Just walked away from it, not realizing it was out of your hands until it was too late? Remember that panic that gripped you to the very core? How your blood turned to ice in your veins and your heart pounded so loud you could hear it in your ears? In John Patrick Bray’s One-Act, Goodnight Lovin’ Trail, this is the moment we meet a traveler who’s just realized he’s left behind the most important thing he owns – Della: his guitar. Without Della this stranger feels like ”a wave of the ocean hung out to dry.”
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