Drunken hookups aren’t what they used to be, at least according to Neil LaBute in his undeniably provocative, bitingly funny, and potentially button-pushing World Premiere two-hander If I Needed Someone at Santa Monica’s City Garage Theatre.

Only an hour or so ago, Jim (Adam Langsam) was perusing the host’s record collection at a party somewhere in New York City when Jules (Devin Davis-Lorton) walked over and struck up a conversation, chitchat that soon turned into a bit of lip-locking and an invitation to continue things at her place, the twosome’s forty-block walk interrupted only by a liquor store stop to pick up a six-pack.

Unfortunately for the would-be Romeo, Jim can’t seem to figure out how not to put his foot in his mouth. A comment on Jules’s “healthy little laugh” falls flat, and when he tries awkwardly to rectify things by explaining that what he meant was simply that she has “a kinda loud but … really pretty … laugh,” Jules is not amused.

On the other hand, you can’t blame a guy for being confused about what to say and do when confronted with the decidedly mixed signals Jules keeps sending out.

She invites him to say, but only “for now.” She asks him to show her just how much he appreciates “a girl who doesn’t Google,” but when he begins edging in towards a kiss, her response is to remind him that “you’re not staying, though… okay?”

With remarks and responses as contradictory as these, it’s no wonder the evening is turning out to be “not very fun” for Jim, though when he informs Jules that, given his confusion about what she wants and doesn’t want from him, he’s decided to head on home, she quickly replies, “You can stay,” though for how long is anyone’s guess.

And this is just the start of 90 real-time minutes of thrusting and parrying likely to ring true for anyone in the dating game in the age of #metoo.

It would be easy, at first at least, to pigeonhole If I Needed Someone as a Boomer’s rant against rules of consent that weren’t a part of dating back in the 1980s, and Jules does come across as more than a bit of a loose cannon.

Then again, if Jim chooses not to run for his life the minute he realizes he could be getting himself into hot water, maybe sex is indeed all he’s after, and Jules just might be right in not letting down her guard.

Fortunately for audiences, the more we get to know Jim and Jules, the more complex each of them becomes, and the same can be said about LaBute’s play, though none of this would work nearly as well as it does at City Garage without precisely the right duo to bring Jules and Jim to life, and in Davis-Lorton and new company member Langsam, ace director Frédérique Michel has hit the jackpot.

Imagine if you will a late 1980s/early 1990s pairing of Jennifer Jason Leigh (in Single White Female mode) and Tom Hanks (circa Sleepless In Seattle) and you’ll have some idea of what Davis-Lorton and Langsam (both absolutely terrific) bring to their roles.

Like Leigh, Davis-Lorton combines likability (no wonder her character was able to hoodwink Bridget Fonda in SWF) and a dangerous edge, a girl next door who might have a figurative knife hidden up her sleeve.

And like Hanks in his romcom days, Langsam’s Jim has us rooting for him even as we remain aware throughout the show that Jules would be no match for the 6-footer should push come to shove.

Producer Charles A. Duncombe once again serves as City Garage’s jack of all trades including set (Jules’s studio apartment rendered in the company’s signature primary colors), lighting, and sound designs, and Josephine Poinsot’s costumes are spot-on choices for each character.

Holly Dunnigan is assistant director.

Just as he did in 2008’s reasons to be pretty, If I Needed Someone dissects male-female relationships as only Neil LaBute can—savagely, but not without humor and maybe even a sliver of hope. LaBute fans won’t want to miss this City Garage Theatre World Premiere coup.

City Garage, 2525 Michigan Ave. Building T1, Santa Monica. Through September 22. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00. Sundays at 4:00.
www.citygarage.org

–Steven Stanley
August 4, 2024
Photos: Paul Rubenstein

Tags: City Garage, Los Angeles Theater Review, Neil LaBute