From the beginning, there is something off about the Northeast Office in Adam Bock’s The Receptionist. There is a squishy sense of period and an even sparser sense of location beyond a workplace within a city with bagels, croissants, and public transportation. Most extraordinary, even with all the narrative phone calls and perpetual office gossip, it is more than halfway through this clipped play that we get any inkling of what these people do for a living. It reflects well on the banter and incidentals that this revelation is so slow in dawning, effectively delaying our rising alarm.
Though the script has been around for nearly 20 years, its vibe fits all-too-comfortably into 2026 with only a few tweaks. The construction hasn’t made the trip nearly as well. Described by Second Stage as “a jet-black comedy,” the work is really more like a simple black and white cookie, with the gloom and the humor lying side by side. By the end, much remains merely hinted at with mixed effect. Post show chatter in the ladies room, where sometimes the most insightful criticism is shared, was split between those who felt sure they’d missed something and those who reveled in the murkiness.
The spiky dialogue is mostly between Katie Finneran’s good natured receptionist Beverly Wilkins and Mallori Johnson as a staff member, Lorraine Taylor. Though further up the org. chart, the stunning but insecure Lorraine lacks Beverly’s assured hand. With her consistent missing of her bus, inappropriately flirtatious manner and golf bag clearly in view inside her office door, her holding down of a job is yet another office mystery. Their breezy day is disrupted by the dark cloud of Will Pullen’s Martin Dart from the Central Office. He is seeking a chat with their head of office, Edward Raymond (an underutilized Nael Nacer). We shouldn’t be surprised that someone so named would stay on target.
A skilled hand at refining sharp viewpoints, director Sarah Benson steers her cast through the ripples of normalcy and then oddness. Encased within the earth-toned carpeting and padded walls by design collective “dots” and fashioned in part by Cookie Jordan’s wig design, the actors spark off one another, even though their characters lack the definition you’d expect to find in an expanded metaphor. Like Jayne Houdyshell before her, the potential predictability of Beverly benefits from the performance precision of two-time Tony winner Finneran. She vivaciously transmits her character’s “in-the-know” regarding the finer details that flow through her. Likewise Johnson finds a provocative note within Lorraine’s exhausting coquettishness.
The Receptionist is an amuse-bouche of a play: tasty, but not enough of anything — comedy, commentary, character development — to be fully satisfying. (And yes, I am using another food metaphor.) The intervening years have provided us with too many chilly worlds that are better and more distinctively built. Part of Second Stage’s 47th season, performances are scheduled through May 24th at the Irene Diamond Stage in the Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W 42nd Street near 10th Avenue. Running time is 80 minutes without intermission. Tickets begin at $66 up to $136 for premium seats. The latter price range includes the entrance row G where there is extra legroom and space for wheelchairs. Those in row H get a height boost, though there is a thin railing in front.
The Unforgettable Line 