‘The Counter’ Off Broadway Review: This Greasy Spoon Serves Nothing but Coffee

Paddy Chayevsky lives — only shorter.

“The Counter” features what used to be called back in the 1950’s “the little people.” There’s a waitress, Katie (Susannah Flood) who works the early morning shift at the counter of a greasy spoon. It is not a very successful business, it seems. Every day, she has only one person to serve, Paul (Anthony Edwards), who is her first and perhaps only customer. What “Groundhog Day” is to rodents, Meghan Kennedy’s new play is to coffee.

“The Counter” opened Wednesday at the Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre, and it could be called a two-hander if not for the fact that a woman named Peg (Amy Warren) shows up shortly before its 75-minutes wrap.