Audiences are invited to talk back to the exes who reunite at a trendy night spot to rehash the past and maybe, just possibly get back together in the MCC Theater production of Douglas Lyons’ raucously funny off-Broadway hit Table 17, imported to L.A. by the Geffen Playhouse precisely when stressed-out Angelinos need it most.

It’s been two years since aspiring songwriter Dallas (Biko Eisen-Martin) and flight attendant Jada (Gail Bean) split up after a five-year relationship, time enough for Jada to finally unblock former fiancé Dallas’s number and for Dallas to get up the nerve to call.

 It takes Jada almost that long to settle on what to wear to the restaurant where they first met, though hardly more than an instant for Dallas to opt for his signature polyester corduroy, but outfits decided (and unbeknownst to Jada’s therapist), here they are, though whether being reunited over drinks and dinner will (in the immortal words of Peaches & Herb) “feel so good” or send each of them heading for the emergency exit is open to question.

Interspersed with some awkward initial chitchat and some later, deeper introspection about what went wrong are flashbacks that fill us in on the deets.

We eyewitness their initial meet-cute at Bianca, the blissful early days of their relationship, Dallas’s uber-romantic/uber-dorky marriage proposal, and his late-night meetings with record execs that gave Jada far too much free time to spend with seductive work colleague Eric (Michael Rishawn).

And throughout all this we are encouraged to be as vocal as we wish about what’s going on in their lives past or present and to feel free to take sides.

Indeed, I can’t recall a single other play where audience reaction has been so built into a script, and the absolutely fabulous cast that’s been imported from New York play off these unscripted reactions like the comedic pros they are.

Inspired by such turn-of-the-21st-century romcom classics as Love & Basketball and Love Jones, playwright Lyons has created a romantic comedy that is specifically African-American yet universally appealing.

It’s also surprisingly touching, and never more so than when playwright Lyons gives acerbic gay host/waiter River (Rishawn) an eleventh-hour soliloquy about love and loneliness that had me wiping away a tear or two.

Rishawn (whose impossibly sculpted physique L.A. audiences got to savor six years back in Echo Theater Company’s Handjob) may steal the show as three very different black men (he’s also cocky hetero bartender Mason), but his tour-de-force performance doesn’t take anything away from the production’s two romantic leads.

 Under Zhailon Levingston’s spot-on direction, Bean sizzles like nobody’s business as a woman who knows she looks “succulent good, like I’d tap this ass from the back if I could, kinda good” before revealing equally fine dramatic chops as Jada finds herself at a crossroads.

 Eisen-Martin, meanwhile is the perfect Omar to Bean’s Sanaa (or Larenz to her Nia), a man who has worked hard on himself these past two years, but will that be enough to persuade Jada to take him back?

All of this theatrical magic takes place on Jason Sherwood’s glitzy restaurant set, one that includes onstage tables for four audience pairs to provide authentic ambiance, lit with flashy pizzazz by Ben Stanton.

Devario D. Simmons earns major snaps for giving each of Table 17’s five characters multiple costume treats to change into in what often seems like only seconds, and Nikiya Mathis’s hair and wig designs give Jada multiple sultry dos to dazzle Dallas with.

Add to that Christopher Darbassie’s dynamic sound design and Tre Matthews’ original music compositions and you’ve got a crackerjack New York production design that Angelinos now get to savor.

Table 17 is produced by Mark Cortale. Rosalind Bevan is associate director. Joy DeMichelle is intimacy director. Los Angeles Casting is by Phyllis Schuringa, CSA. Imani Branch and Calvin M. Thompson are understudies.

Sam Allen is production stage manager and Lydia Runge is assistant stage manager.

 In these days when every new headline seems designed to depress and demoralize, the adage that laughter is the best medicine has never been more applicable, so head on over to the Geffen for some much needed hilarity healing. You’ll be bursting with joy that you did.

Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood.
www.geffenplayhouse.com

–Steven Stanley
November 12, 2025
Photos: Jeff Lorch

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Douglas Lyon, Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles Theater Review