“As Time Goes By,” now at Theatre 154 in the West Village, is an awkward little rom-com that, unfortunately, delivers neither on the “rom” nor the “com.” The premise (lifted from the much better “Frankie and Johnny in the Claire De Lune”) is that what begins as a hookup between two inherently lost people evolves into a more intimate, and sometimes contentious, interaction that lasts through the night. The dramatic theme is that sex is easy—deeper human connection not so much.
In this case, the hookup began on Grindr, and before the lights come up, we hear Adam and David in the last moments of sex. David is about to leave when he looks out the window, sees it’s snowing, has his Uber ride cancelled, and comes back to beg Adam to let him in to wait it out. Turns out David has brought neither credit card, cash, nor MetroCard, so he says he’s stranded, even though he has his phone and makes a joke about Apple Pay. In reality, no one gets stranded in Manhattan in a snowstorm, especially when it’s first starting. The only cars on the streets at that time are taxis, and one can always walk. The cost may be a little slipping, discomfort, and maybe ruined shoes, but you can get home.
The point of bringing up the flaws in what might seem like a minor literary device is to note that right from the start, virtually every element of the story either strains credulity or feels forced. Playwright Danny Brown does an audience no favors by making Adam OCD and David aggressively arrogant without showing us more than these surface behaviors. The play is riddled with these undeveloped expository threads. Both men are gay and Jewish. Both are looking for something from a Grindr hookup. What was behind the breakup that has Adam alone in a studio apartment? David at 24 thinks that Adam in his early 30s is old. These bits of information are dropped and abandoned, and the result is a series of set pieces rather than something deeper and more coherent or interesting.
To be fair, Brown is good with a one-liner, and the first half of the play is quite funny as Adam and David spar verbally, but amusing as the wordplay is — interspersed with some surprisingly graphic sex talk — we never get sufficiently inside the characters to understand who they are or their emotional journeys, which is what would make it a substantial play.
As it turns out long into the play, both David and Adam have secrets. They both are mourning loves gone awry and have turned to Grindr. Whether it’s for solace or validation, playwright Brown never makes clear. What is clear is that they don’t find it in one another. Perhaps this could be then read as commentary on loneliness and the emptiness of hookup culture, but that theme isn’t developed either. That’s because the characters never really connect and simply talk at one another over the course of the evening.
The saving grace of the production are the two fine actors in the roles. Ephraim Birney as Adam and Joel Myers as David are engaging and clearly talented and much better than the material they’ve been given to work with. Birney is a master of restless neurosis and adept at the comedy. His final moments are affecting and the only time the audience might understand the emotional impact of a Grindr hookup on Adam. That moment, however, feels like a manipulation; we shouldn’t have to wait to the end of the play to understand a character.
Myers is charming and quick with an engaging slyness. David’s attitude is his armor, a facile trope of many gay plays, but as with Adam, we shouldn’t have to wait to the end to see it slip, to see the man beneath the performative twink.
Playwright Brown deserves credit for digging into this facet of gay life in the current environment. Apps are omnipresent and hookup culture is not without its emotional and human costs. The accessibility of sex and the dearth of authentic human connection are major issues this time in our culture — gay or straight. One only wishes Brown had dug a little deeper because ultimately, as one might type into the app, “I’m sorry, but I’m just not feeling it.”
“As Time Goes By” | Theatre 154 | 154 Christopher Street | Sun, Mon, Weds-Sat 7 p.m.; Sun2 p.m. through March 23 | $38-$68 | Ovationtix.com
