byplay

What endures is the rasping byplay, the soaring exasperation, the tango of opposing temperaments finding fleeting common ground.

Their workplace cross talk and byplay are both hilarious, making this Manhattan Theater Club production, directed by Whitney White, a kind of “Cheers” for today and a comic highlight of the season.

Their byplay is vibrant, and it gets messy in fascinating ways; this is a sly, smart sex comedy that plumbs unexpected depths of sadness and despair.

All this byplay has predictably undermined confidence that the deal will ever happen.

In any case, Lyons is more interested in the family’s moment-by-moment byplay — its laugh track and tear track — than in drawing realistic character portraits or scoring sociological points.