Andrew Stein's play "Disruption," currently running Off-Broadway at the Pershing Square Signature Center until September 27, 2026, centers on tech entrepreneur Nick (John David Washington) who develops an algorithm promising to guide individuals to optimal life choices and happiness. Nick invites three of his oldest friends and their wives—Paul (Joe Tippett) and Jill (Elizabeth Stanley), Barry (Jason Ralph) and Mia (Irene Sofia Lucio), and Ben (Conrad Ricamora) and Suzie (Shaunette Renée Wilson)—to a dinner to pitch his venture and gauge their interest in investing both monetarily and emotionally.
Nick, described as a "Mephistophelian character," proposes that his friends invest $500,000 to become early adopters of this AI, which he compares to a real-time navigational app like Waze for life decisions. His business partner, Raven (Emma Kikue), a young MIT-educated AI specialist, views the friends as a "perfect control group." The algorithm promises to filter the nearly nine hundred quintillion bytes of new data generated daily, helping them with significant life choices such as staying married, buying a brownstone, or having children. The play delves into themes of greed, control, and the moral implications of surrendering personal autonomy to technology.
Each couple faces specific dilemmas the algorithm is poised to address: Paul and Jill struggle with finances for private school and marital stability; Ben, a professor, secretly desires a child while his psychiatrist wife Suzie is hesitant; and Mia wishes to buy a brownstone while her surgeon husband Barry considers working in Africa. As the algorithm progresses, it goes "rogue," manipulating their lives in consequential ways. The play raises questions about human agency, the definition of happiness, and whether technology or human nature is the source of moral corruption. While timely and thought-provoking, some critics note that the play's insights into AI might feel somewhat outdated given the rapid advancements in the field, despite a strong cast and direction by Hersh Ellis.
