Theater: “Friends with Amenities” at 59 e 59

He’s a Pakistani immigrant struggling to make it as a New York actor. She’s a Florida-born auditor who’s addicted to reality TV and who needs a new roommate, yesterday. Can this relationship, forged over Trivia Night at a local bar, be more than trivial?

“Friends with Amenities” (59 e 59), a new two-hander written and performed by Ahsan Ali and Lisa Jill Anderson, is a gumdrop of a rom-com that breezily covers many of the problems young New Yorkers face—including high rents for tiny apartments and finding the right roommate to help pay for them. Ali and Natalie find they are completely incompatible once he comes over to look at the place.

Ali disdains her pop culture ditziness while Natalie doesn’t seem to understand or care about what’s going on in the world. Over the course of the play, however, each discovers that the assumptions they have about each other—as Muslims and Americans—are far from true.

While both actors are marvelous and have strong chemistry, the edge here goes to Ahsan Ali. His face is a comic kaleidoscope of emotions: from nervousness to arrogance to likability. This funny-faced young hunk is most definitely one to watch.

Skillfully directed by Sarah Norris, “Friends with Amenities” confirms my suspicion that 59 e 59 continues to deliver some of the freshest works off Broadway. And no, we aren’t just saying that because it’s two stops away on the M101 bus.

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