Of course it’s unlikely that any of us would want to live there if it meant we had to share those digs with the characters who are its occupants. They are Eve and Rodger, a smug therapist and plastic surgeon who are hosting a cocktail party for their longtime friends who include the sleazy lawyer Brett and his boozy wife Claire, a lascivious paramedic named Frank and his new young bride Hannah and Logan, a divorced gym teacher who is supposed to be bringing the new woman he’s dating but shows up stag. Hannah is Asian-American. Logan is black.
It's hard to believe that such a motley crew would have much in common but we're told that the guys were once frat brothers, the couples still take an annual ski vacation together and they’re all so trusting of one another that they agree to Eve’s proposal that they spend the evening playing a game in which all of them put their cellphones on the table and agree to read every incoming text out loud and to put all incoming calls on speakerphone.
Needless to say secrets are revealed. Lots of secrets. Nearly all of them involving sex. It's a ridiculous premise but the show, which was written and directed by Robert O’Hara, was adapted from the 2016 Italian film “Perfect Strangers” that has also inspired some 20 film remakes in countries ranging from Azerbaijan to Vietnam. Sex jokes clearly sell everywhere.
What sells them in this production is a cast filled with folks who know how to squeeze laughs out of even the loopiest situations. Jane Krakowski and Neil Patrick Harris, who honed their comedic chops in popular TV sitcoms as well as onstage, play Eve and Rodger, who despite the tensions in their marriage relish being the most successful in the friend group. And the gifted Debra Messing knows just how far to push Claire's sloppy drunkenness.
But O’Hara, who directed Slave Play and who has written such transgressive satires as Bootycandy (click here to read my review of that one) and Barbecue (click here to read my review of this one), likes to make his audiences uncomfortable. And so his version of this story weaves in some strands designed to reveal the group's problematic attitudes on race, class and homophobia that lie just below the surface of their regular interactions—and maybe those of the people watching them as well.
Not all of this works. And very little of it is new or as naughty as the play's title suggests. But not every show needs to have a deeper meaning or to break fresh artistic ground. Sometimes people just want to have some easy laughs. Or to see some famous faces up close. Or to look at and dream about living in a great apartment. And Shit. Meet. Fan checks all those boxes.
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