John Stokvis and Sandra Delgado

The Upstairs Concierge is set in a fictional, brand-new Chicago boutique hotel that caters to celebrities and whose motto is "Your New Family Home." It's so homey that there are no locks on the guest room doors. And, on the top level, reserved for the most exclusive guests, you enter through the concierge's bedroom, The concierge of the title is the eager young Ella Elizondo (Tawny Newsome), who recently received her degree in "conciergery" and is starting her first job at the hotel, reporting to the owner Jeffrey Hotelman (pronounced HOE-tell-mun and played by Cedric Young). Her orders are clear: She must maintain absolute privacy and keep isolated one of the first guests, a young YouTube sensation named Rebecca Oaxaca (Alejandra Escalante). Ms. Oaxaca's fame comes from a video in which she bunted in a baseball game (for the non-baseball fans among us, it's explained that bunting is hitting the ball lightly so it flies a shorter distance than the fielders expect, allowing the runner to get on base). Now, this young woman is sought by all the major league baseball teams so she can be the first female major league player, but Mr. Hotelman has arranged a meeting with a representative of the (unnamed) "only major league baseball franchise that matters." He'll earn a big commission if she signs with them, so it's essential she be kept out of the clutches of any other teams who may be lurking around the hotel.

After the opening scene establishes all that, we meet the guests. Shivery Delicious (Sandra Delgado) is a novelist who assumes various personas and writes her novels as she's living them—apparently writing them quite quickly. She's mistaken for Ms. Oaxaca but decides that that would be a good code name for her as she is currently a spy. Next is the celebrity blogger BB (José Antonio Garcia), who wants to find and report on Ms. Oaxaca, which would bring publicity to the new hotel (good) and would jeopardize Jeffrey's hoped-for deal (bad). BB scolds Ella for his welcome basket ("that doesn't look very artisanal," he whines), but Ms Oaxaca, when she arrives, thinks it's great. She just wants to have fun on her night in Chicago—and if she can't go out to the bars, a small orgy on this upstairs floor will do.

So, we have the usual farce elements of doors that must open and close so people can hide and emerge, mistaken identities, and so forth. What The Upstairs Concierge lacks though, is high stakes. In the best farces somebody wants their freedom, their lover, to keep three mistresses unaware of each other or to stay alive. Here we have a likable-enough young woman who wants to do well on her first job—a lousy job at that. There's also a pompous buffoon who wants to make money off a baseball player, and a bunch of major league baseball teams who want to sign a girl who's not really even a baseball player. Diaz make them all seem so silly he diminishes any stakes there might be. Why should we care about any of this? Where's the tension in that? Frankly, we'd rather see Ella leave this place and get a better job.

In the place of real stakes, Diaz has his guests accidentally see each other naked behind those unlocked doors—occurrences they enjoy and try to repeat. Before long everyone is running around in their underwear trying to have sex (and is that really so hard to do?). At the same time, reps of various baseball teams (including a male New York Yankees rep played in male drag by Ms. Theo Allyn) arrive to try to steal Ms. Oaxaca from the "only major league baseball team that matters." There may have been more to it than that, but after a time it was hard to focus enough on the action to follow what was going on, sending me into a downward spiral of confusion and disinterest.

One can credit director KJ Sanchez and her cast with all being on the same page, at least, giving a broadly Looney Tunes affect to all the characters. Newsome, a Second City veteran, is game for it all and plays the sweet, eager-to-please Ella as appealingly as possible. Escalante's Oaxaca is a great good-time girl who's the only honest character in the play. As two horny bellmen with their eyes (and hands) on Oaxaca and Delicious, John Stokvis and Gabriel Ruiz show considerable physical skills with their pratfalls and leaps over banisters. And they all get to run around a set gorgeously designed by Chicago's master of realism, Todd Rosenthal. Only for the 75 minutes running time of the play, though. Lest I sound like the ladies in the joke Woody Allen tells in Annie Hall who complain that a restaurant's food is terrible ... and the portions are so small, know that the play felt longer than its hour and fifteen minutes.

In fairness, I should note there were a lot of laughs in the audience on the night I attended—a Friday night at that, when audiences are frequently too tired to laugh. I'm glad they had a good time, but I had checked out long before checkout time.

The Upstairs Concierge runs (and runs and runs) through April 26, 2015, in the Goodman's Owen Theatre, 170 North Dearborn, Chicago. For tickets, visit GoodmanTheatre.org or call 312.443.3800.

Photo: Liz Lauren

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-- John Olson