The Counter Tickets

Every morning at a local diner in a small town, a regular customer comes in for his daily cup of coffee. He develops a little friendship with the diner’s waitress, which keeps him coming back for more. But one day, their relationship takes a turn: the regular asks the waitress for a startling favor, one that will upend their lives and expose their deepest secrets.

A sly, funny, and touching new play, The Counter examines how we build trust, the big meaning behind little interactions, and the many shapes community can take. Celebrated for his ability to show the beauty in strange pairings, David Cromer has a knack for creating indelible works and showing the charmed ways in which people from different worlds come together. In The Band’s Visit, stranded musicians upended a small community, and in The Sound Inside, a working-class student and his celebrated professor found sublime connection. Now, more wonder awaits in The Counter.

What to watch for

• Roundabout Theatre Company is known for its flashy revivals of beloved musicals (including recent hits such as She Loves Me and Kiss Me Kate) but also commissions and develops tender new plays, as with this play and last season’s Pulitzer winner Primary Trust.
• The play’s intimacy is mirrored in its venue: running at the smaller Laura Pels Theatre, The Counter will offer audiences a special immediacy that is found in Cromer’s other hits in smaller spaces, including the New York Times Critic’s Pick The Treasurer off Broadway.
• Diners have often been used in theater as a setting for small-town interactions and dynamic community, and William Inge’s Bus Stop, also playing in New York this season, is perhaps the most famous dramatic example.
• This is not the first Cromer-directed production that revolves around a shocking favor: on Broadway, The Sound Inside followed a student befriending a professor who ultimately needs something striking and specific from him.