The world premiere “Things with Friends” attempts to paint a picture of the perfect dystopian dinner party. All of the elements are there: A sharp-witted script, impressive performances by the cast, well-timed gags and moments of sleight of hand, and direction by Dexter Bullard that holds all the pieces in place.
Yet, like the meal prepared on stage — a steak dinner served in Act One with a side of sweet potatoes that don’t pop out of the oven until the final stretch of the finale — the elements of this play never fully come together.
The new play, written by Kristoffer Diaz (a Pulitzer Prize finalist for “The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity,” and book writer of the Tony Award-winning “Hell’s Kitchen,” which arrives in Chicago this fall) is on stage at American Blues Theater until Oct. 5.
On the surface, the production is a dark comedy about a dinner party with two sets of couples who are awful friends. Underneath, Diaz takes aim at more complex topics like climate change and the interpersonal impacts of capitalism.
But the show has so many bells and whistles that the deeper themes get lost in one-liners and the production’s gradual descent into complete absurdity.
The show is set in the swanky 27th floor Manhattan apartment of Burt and Adele (Casey Campbell and Audrey Billings). And while the show is not directly about climate change, the island of Manhattan is under threat of becoming an actual island, particularly from New Jersey where half of the characters live. That is due to the George Washington Bridge collapsing and a flood forcing the closure of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.
With these catastrophes in the backdrop, and characters convinced impending rain storms will lead to the entirety of Manhattan flooding, the wine-sipping, fancy-steak-eating dinner party guests grapple with how to move forward under the threat of impending doom.
Diaz pits the two couples against each other with Chabby and Vy (played by Jon Hudson Odom and Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel) aiming to seize the forthcoming climate catastrophe for financial gain, fostering juicy drama.
Witnessing these actions take place on stage now also feels uniquely timely as opening night was just days after the 20th anniversary on Aug. 29 of Hurricane Katrina — which draws a connection to the disaster capitalism that took place in New Orleans.
The place where the production gets muddled is in narration. The city itself is listed as a cast member, NYC, portrayed by Nate Santana. Throughout the show, Santana breaks the fourth wall.
For the most part it works, due in large part to Bullard, whose Second City chops are on full display in the impeccable comedic timing of the show. Santana pulls the audience along with humor and wit, at one point stopping the show to explain the geography of New York City, so the room full of Chicagoans could understand the characters were trapped.
The problem with the narration is the constant interruption to the action on stage. Santana nails the funny but sucks the life out of the drama. Every time there is a heavy moment the audience needs to sit in and absorb, a line from the narrator pulls attention away from the scene, and puts the focus on Santana who is often off stage and among the audience. At times it is jarring. Even with Santana delivering a superb performance, the device itself is a constant distraction.
The highlight of the show are the moments when the actors on stage engage in dialogue uninterrupted. In these moments, Diaz slips in ideas that swirl in my mind even after leaving the show.
At one point Vy poses the argument that “workers make the city,” implying it is the people who work in a city, and not those who live there, who are most important. This idea, presented as dinner party banter, caught my millennial attention as I know plenty of people unable to afford to live in the city they work in. (This feels especially apt considering New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was on CNN this same night saying there are New Yorkers living in New Jersey and Connecticut because they can’t afford rent.)
The entirety of the 90-minute show unfolds in the same apartment, and Bullard’s direction provides enough movement to ensure the show never feels stale or stagnant.
But without moments where the characters on stage could have time to express and feel emotion, the show ends up a little hollow, and by the finale, the jokes don’t land as heavy. In a way, it seems we need a little more salt to balance out the sweet.
“Things with Friends” has the bones to be something special. With a writer and director who both have Broadway experience, this show opens with high expectations, but the individual pieces don’t fit just yet.
Overall, the strong performances by Odom, Gonzalez-Cadel and Audrey Billings make the play worth seeing. But the distracting narration and Twilight Zone absurdity make the plot difficult to follow.