Lobby Hero

American playwright and screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan’s play, Lobby Hero, debuted Off-Broadway in 2001. The play concerns a down-on-his-luck security guard who falls in love with a female police officer in the building while observing a possible criminal cover-up involving his boss in the lobby and the police officer's partner.

Four major characters appear onstage in Lobby Hero, which takes place on a single set, the lobby of an upscale Manhattan apartment building. Jeff, a twenty-seven-year-old security guard, is in a rut, professionally and romantically. He owes a great deal of money to a loan shark and, therefore, can't afford a place of his own. Instead, he stays with his brother. William is Jeff's boss and the head security guard at the apartment building. A black man, he takes an interest in Jeff, both attempting to spur him onto success and cutting him slack when he screws up. Dawn is a rookie cop in her twenties. Finally, Bill is Dawn's older partner on the force. Bill frequently visits the apartment building because he is carrying on an affair with one of the tenants there. At the same time, he seems to be falling for Dawn, his partner. In turn, Dawn looks up to Bill as a mentor and hero cop.

At the beginning of the play, William is berating Jeff for being sloppy on the job. Jeff apologizes, saying he has a lot on his mind. William is hard on Jeff but wants to help him out. He even gives Jeff self-help books. Jeff admits he has a crush on a young female cop they have seen come around lately. William says being with a cop would make him feel intimidated. Jeff responds that he always feels intimidated with women, even his ex-girlfriend who was a tollbooth operator. With a cop, Jeff says, at least he would feel safe.



A little later, Bill and Dawn enter the lobby. Dawn clearly admires Bill and is attracted to him, but she is also uncomfortable with the prospect of hooking up romantically. Bill says he needs to just run up for a few minutes to visit a "friend." While Bill is upstairs, Jeff flirts awkwardly with Dawn, but she is clearly not interested in his clumsy, over-eager advances. She does, however, confide in him that she just sent a perpetrator to the hospital by hitting him with her nightstick too hard. Later, Dawn feigns apathy when she learns the person Bill is visiting is a woman who is likely his mistress. Clearly upset about it internally, she takes out her frustration on Jeff, who can't seem to take a hint that she isn't interested in him.

After the cops leave, William enters, explaining that his brother has become a person of interest in a heinous murder. His brother has been accused of having broken into a hospital with two other men to steal pharmaceuticals. A nurse caught them, and the men beat the nurse to death with a pipe. Despite assuring William of his brother's innocence, his brother's girlfriend begs William to provide the cops with a false alibi in order to keep him out of jail. The girlfriend claims he was home alone with no alibi, but the brother told the cops he was with William all night at the movies. Now William has to decide whether to tell the cops the truth or lie for his brother. While he doesn't believe his brother is capable of murder, he thinks it likely that he was one of the people there at the hospital, even if he didn't participate directly in the murder.

A little later, Bill enters, telling William he knows what is going on with his brother and that his alibi is probably false. He gives William his card, telling him he can help him if he needs it. William tries to speak up, but Bill cuts him off, telling him to think about it. After William exits, Bill rips into Jeff for implying to Dawn that the person he's visiting in the apartment building is his mistress. Bill threatens to "slap the shit out of" Jeff. Meanwhile, Dawn is angry for having to be Bill's lookout while he whores around. Bill reacts defensively, telling Dawn she will never be a real cop.



The next day, William tells Jeff that he spoke with the detectives and decided to lie to them, saying that he was with his brother at the time of the murder. He does this in part because after meeting with his brother's lawyer, he feels the lawyer is an incompetent drunk. Later on, Dawn and Bill return. Bill goes upstairs as usual while Dawn talks to Jeff. Jeff stupidly begins to outline the moral conundrum facing William, wording it as a hypothetical. Dawn sees through Jeff's insistence about it being hypothetical and gets him to admit William lied about the alibi. When Bill comes downstairs, Dawn rubs it in his face, stating that she does real police work while all he does is whore around.

Bill is reprimanded and loses a promotion. Dawn, however, is ostracized in the department. William refuses to recant his brother's alibi, and the ADA chooses to charge the brother anyway, thanks to Jeff's statement. William is angry with Jeff and fires him, but then changes his mind, stating that it's his fault for telling Jeff in the first place.

In The Spectator, Toby Young calls Lobby Hero "a fantastic play" about "how good intentions can be undermined by unconscious desires."