There are not many plays that truly capture the liminal period when young adults are in the thick of that awkward, exhilarating process of becoming. Natalie Margolin’s one-act dramedy All Nighter, which opened Sunday at the MCC Theater Space, perfectly portrays that moment — focusing on four female seniors at a small liberal arts college circa 2014 who are cramming for their finals less than a week before graduation may scatter them for good. They’ve set up camp in a glass-walled study center (designed with a kind of collegiate-brutalist realism by Wilson Chin) for one last all-night academic/social session where they’ll also come to terms with a series of long-festering issues and closely guarded secrets.
The group of clothes-swapping housemates includes the tightly wound, Teach for America-bound Darcie (Kristine Frøseth), who projects a sense of having it together that turns out to be more of a mask; the stylish, well-dressed Tessa (Alyah Chanelle Scott), who wears her background of privilege like comfy Lululemon leggings; the freshly out-of-the-closet Jacqueline (Kathryn Gallagher), who can alternate between impolitic bluntness and fierce loyalty; and the slightly disheveled, deeply anxious Lizzy (Havana Rose Liu), whose worries range from her mysteriously depleted stash of doctor-prescribed Adderall to her conflicting feelings about a guy who sexually assaulted her during freshman year.
Yes, Margolin raises some serious issues during the course of the play. But for the most part, All Nighter is a very, very funny show that both dramatizes and gently mocks the earnestness of college students and the sometimes passive-aggressive ways they communicate with each other. “I was slightly annoyed to walk downstairs this morning and see you guys had eaten all the pasta I has made yesterday,” Darcie tells Lizzy early on about her and the other housemates’ late-night, post-drinking food binge. She says she embarrassed to even raise the issue, while also articulating why it really does matter to her (“I wanted the pasta to last throughout the week … those groceries weren’t cheap”).
The entire five-woman cast is excellent in portraying the contradictions of college students who can tiptoe around sensitive topics for the sake of comity in one moment and then elbow right into a sore spot just seconds later. The emotional center of the cast is Liu, who nails the play’s most emotional scenes with a raw, self-questioning openness that makes you want to go up and hug her. Her character also shows the most growth over the course of the evening, from a timid people-pleaser to an individual who manages to find her voice when it truly matters.
In terms of people pleasing, All Nighter has a neon-clad ringer in the form of Julia Lester, the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series alum who earned a well-deserved Tony nomination as the danish-munching Little Red in the 2022 revival of Into the Woods. Here, she plays a Madonna-obsessed art and American studies double major who barges into her classmates’ study group like the ultimate buttinsky. She’s loud, both vocally and in her attire (costumes by Michelle J. Li), and she’s only dimly aware of just how hyperdramatic (and annoying) others find her. She’s also a hoot. Whether she’s belting “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” or flirtatiously doing the splits in front of an unseen guy who’s just yelled at her to shut up, Lester’s Wilma is a spotlight-stealing force of nature who threatens to stuff the entire show into her backpack and walk off with it. Margolin wisely uses her sparingly, including as a kind of deus ex machina to set up the final set of revelations.
The ending, marked by confessions and confrontations that Margolin has cleverly seeded earlier in the show, feels a bit rushed. The characters barely have time to absorb some of the newly spilled tea before they begin to make definitive judgments about their longtime friends. Director Jaki Bradley doesn’t always smooth over the transitions between the rawer, confessional scenes and the fast-paced moments of more straightforward comedy. But the occasional messiness of All Nighter somehow seems fitting, bringing a relatable authenticity to characters who are too young to be be placed into tidy little boxes. I foresee a long, fruitful life for this show, particularly in collegiate drama programs everywhere. ★★★★☆
ALL NIGHTER
MCC Theater Space, Off Broadway
Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes (no intermission)
Tickets on sale through May 18 (tickets: $65-$125)
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