A Review of Data at the Lucille Lortel Theatre

Sophia Lillis, Karan Brar and Justin H. Min

My ravenous appetite for live theater frequently brings me Off-Broadway, where I find satisfactory performances at feasible prices. When I arrived at the Lucille Lortel Theatre to watch Data, a new play by Brooklyn-based writer Matthew Libby, I had few expectations.

The set, designed by Marsha Ginsberg, is minimalist and haunting. Without frills or obvious gimmicks, it was clear that the success of this production would fall upon its small cast of four young, attractive actors. As a child of the Disney Channel era, I grinned seeing Karan Brar (the nerdy, reptile-obsessed young boy from Jessie) all grown up. Sophia Lillis excited me as well; her show I Am Not Okay with This is criminally underrated, though you likely know her from It: Chapters 1 & 2. Brandon Flynn is known for his role in the controversial Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, and Justin H. Min is a fan-favorite from The Umbrella Academy.

The show opens with Maneesh (Karan Brar) and Jonah (Brandon Flynn) playing ping-pong while discussing their employment at Athena Technologies. Maneesh is new to the company and Jonah’s mentee in UX (User Experience). Jonah acknowledges that Maneesh is a talented programmer, destined for and deserving of bigger opportunities.

It is revealed that Maneesh independently created a revolutionary algorithm capable of making accurate predictions. Oil companies and other villainous forces were attracted to the algorithm, recognizing its potential for misuse. Maneesh, scared by his own creation, made the algorithm “closed-source” so its power could be contained.

When Riley (Sophia Lillis) learns that Maneesh is working in UX and not Analytics, she raises this to her superior, Alex Chen (Justin H. Min). While campaigning for Maneesh’s promotion, she tells Alex about the algorithm. Maneesh is infuriated; he took a job beneath his skill set intentionally, wanting to please his immigrant parents but avoid responsibility for ethical abuses within the corrupt world of high tech.

Eventually, Maneesh is lured into the Analytics team and briefed on their project involving the Department of Homeland Security—specifically using AI to measure a prospective immigrant's "value" to the United States. Seeing the humanity of the immigration process dissected and dramatized before my eyes was chilling. Everything discussed in this play felt well within the realm of reason.

Alex Chen is an immigrant just like Maneesh, only he has digested the ethical dilemmas of the project by acknowledging how the technologies will be used:

“Data is the language of our time. And like all languages, its narratives will be written by the victors. So if those fluent in the language don’t help democracy flourish, we hurt it.”

The name ‘Athena Technologies’ functions as a striking omen of the play’s internal conflict, invoking the Greek goddess of both wisdom and strategic warfare. This duality manifests differently for each character; specifically, the pipeline from genius to villainy is a documented trope that feels repeatable in its plausibility. This shift occurs when one character rats out another to the audience’s terror, a moment that echoes a sentiment from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: 'That's humanity undressed. Filled with the terror of becoming prey. See how quickly we become predator?' It suggests that when vulnerable populations feel threatened, they become primal and resistant to empathy, turning on one another instead of consolidating their respective strengths.

I don’t want to spoil this show, for I urge you to see it if possible. In a perfect world, a pro-shot would be made so that you all could.

It felt truly ironic that I began to wonder in the first scene whether or not I had turned my oven off at home. The state of paranoia palpably enacted by Sophia Lillis explored the dark side of cell phones and social media; her anxieties were real and justified. Brandon Flynn as Jonah made me wonder why this actor hasn't had a career trajectory similar to Glen Powell or Tom Holland. His approachable energy saved Data from its potential to be a melodramatic, two-hour slump.

Karan Brar proved what I’m sure he intended to: he is not a washed up, struggling Ex-Disney kid. Brar has become a skilled dramatic actor whose career I will follow closely. Finally, Justin H. Min gave a performance so robotically structured I initially wondered if he was lip-syncing to a track. I thought this was a criticism until I understood his character's ambition and sacrifice—then, I became impressed rather than annoyed.

Data achieves something that Marjorie Prime—even with its Broadway stature—didn't quite hit for me. It’s a rare dramatic thriller that actually manages to articulate the terrifying systemic problems of AI without losing the raw, human struggles of the people behind the screens. It's the most provocative thing I’ve seen all year, or possibly ever.