ongoing – Sun. Feb. 5 

 Time stands still at Superior Donuts. It’s a small shop in uptown Chicago and the setting of Tracy Letts dramedy, also called, um, “Superior Donuts.” Has balding, pony-tailed owner Arthur Przbyszwski, played by great Boston actor Will LeBow, pissed his life away? Maybe. He’s 62. He fled the US for Toronto during the Vietnam War, and the last word his father said to him was a scream: “Coward!” He’s running the shop his father opened long ago because, well, it’s what he does. This place was here before Starbucks dominated the coffee landscape and before people began to view donuts as not the healthiest of breakfast options. The shop is certainly not bustling with customers – the only one we see is an old alcoholic woman, Lady Boyle (Ruth Gotha), who comes in for a morning freebee  Most of what comes at him makes Arthur shrug; he’s past the point of caring much. His ex-wife is dead; he hasn’t spoken to his daughter in six years. Max Taresov (Steven Barkhimer) the Russian owner of a next-door electronics store would like to buy the place to expand his territory and Arthur resists.This may not be much but it's what he's got and all he's got.

   As the play – directed by Spiro Veloudos and up at the Lyric Stage Theatre through Sunday Feb. 5 – opens we’re in the midst of that humble shop, just vandalized and graffiti tagged, with black and white cops James Bailey (De’Lon Grant) and Randy Osteen (Karen MacDonald) trying to figure out what happened. A feisty, but lonely, Randy wouldn’t mind dating Arthur, too.      Soon, a young African-American, Franco Wicks (Omar Robinson) comes into the shop, bursting with confidence and attitude (Arthur’s donuts “contributes to obesity and cardiac disease in the African-American community”),  practically demanding to be hired. Turns out Franco has dropped out of college and needs to make some cash to pay off a gambling debt – working at minimum wage at Superior Donuts is his choice or only option. What he’s got though: An unpublished, apparently A-level novel, that he dreams might be his way up and out. Ya gotta have dreams, right? The thugs who need to collect the money, Luther Flynn (Christopher James Webb) and Kevin Magee (Zachary Eisenstat) have more immediate concerns about the $16,000 Franco owes.

   “Superior Donuts” starts a bit slowly – is this a light sit-com-like affair? - but kicks into gear mid-way through the first act, when we realize there’s both some great funny lines (Franco derides Arthur’s forever ponytail by saying ponytails belong only on horses and girls) and a slow-building sense of tension and the threat of violence.  This play has taken some knocks – the New York Times, comparing it to Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning “August: Osage County,” called it “insubstantial and sweet, with virtually no nutritional value.”

     I’d disagree. LeBow – longtime A.R.T. mainstay in his Lyric Stage debut - brings Arthur from his general state of pleasant lethargy to one of engagement. Robinson’s Franco is a whirlwind of wit and ambition, ultimately, a catalyst for Arthur. Franco’s own situation? To say more about his journey would be TMI. Rest assured that when conflict comes the humorous aspects of the play subside as the proceedings take a turn toward the confrontational. Letts keeps both comedy and drama balls in the air. These people will make you laugh and you will care about their fate.

Shows Thursday at 7:30, Friday at 8, Saturday at 3 and 8 and Sunday at 1. Tickets: $60-$37.

140 Clarendon St., 617-585-5678  www.lyricstage.com