Review Roundup: THE COUNTER at Roundabout Theatre Company

Roundabout Theatre Company is presenting the world premiere of The Counter by Meghan Kennedy and directed by David Cromer. The Counter features Anthony Edwards as “Paul,” Susannah Flood as “Katie,” and Amy Warren as “Peg.” Read the reviews!

The Counter began preview performances on Friday, September 20, 2024 and officially opens tonight, October 9, 2024, at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre. This is a limited engagement through November 17, 2024.

Every morning at the local diner in a small town, a waitress refills a regular’s coffee. An unlikely friendship develops and keeps him coming back for more. But when he asks for a shocking favor, it brings to light both of their deepest secrets. The Counter is a funny, surprising, and moving meditation on the everyday connections that can change our lives. 

After the success of Too Much, Too Much, Too Many and Napoli, Brooklyn, playwright Meghan Kennedy debuts her next Roundabout commission, The Counter. Directed by Tony Award® winner David Cromer, The Counter marks the Roundabout debuts of Anthony Edwards and Amy Warren. Susannah Flood returns to the Roundabout stage following the Broadway productions of Birthday Candles and The Cherry Orchard.

Jesse Green, The New York Times: “The Counter” laudably aims for greater spareness than those earlier plays; its best sustained moments are almost wordless. In shaping them, Cromer displays his usual directorial nerve, creating tension from time. At other points, though, his patience, which in fuller works allows feeling to emerge naturally and purely, can’t stop the story from drooping into skimpiness.

Elysa Gardner, NY Sun: Happily, the playwright has an ideal partner in Mr. Cromer, whose flair for mining emotional depth through intimacy has helped make him one of theater’s most sought-out directors. If Ms. Kennedy’s short, melancholy slice of life would seem to offer less grist than other works he has helmed, he deftly handles the new play’s pathos and its bleak wit, and culls nuanced, moving performances from the actors.

Steven Suskin, New York Stage Review: That’s a high quality group, and The Counter fits right in. Kennedy deals in secrets and grief and escape, in running away and starting again, and most crucially in standing in front of a suddenly opened door: You either stay inside, crushed by your habitual fear and unhappiness, or bravely walk through.

Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: Kennedy seems to be attempting something poignant and hopeful, close in tone to Terrence McNally’s “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” an unlikely connection between two regular people; or perhaps even Samuel D. Hunter’s “A Case for the Existence of God,” which explores the extraordinary that exists within the sadness of the ordinary, the cosmic that can be revealed in the everyday. The production even has the right director to effect such a tone: Cromer helmed Hunter’s play Off-Broadway, and achieved something similar in the memorable 2009 Off Broadway production of “Our Town.”

Average Rating: 70.0%