I had yet to actually attend one of these benefit performances in the past, where a handful of Broadway/Off-Broadway playwrights overnight create 10-minute plays, which are then performed at 8pm the following night by celebrity casts.
This year, all the plays were performed on the set of PGYMALION at the American Airlines Theater. Specifically, Higgins' musty office. What a Jane Austen-like apartment you have, one actress remarked last night.
The night, we were told, was sponsored by a handful of major NY law firms. And the audience was made up more or less of benefactors and friends of the benefactors.
The plays themselves, needless to say, are not meant to be preserved for posternity. I actually once participated in an official 24 Hour Plays event, where I was a director. The plays we got to work on were actually not too bad, as they were all written by candidates for an MA Playwrighting program. And they actually went through a range of genres; after all, those playwrights had to convince a dean of performing arts that they were worthy of being admitted.
But here, on Broadway, a bunch of far better playwrights essentially decide to be as silly as possible for the night. David Lindsay-Abaire, who wrote the Lifetime-ish drama RABBIT HOLE, about a grieving mother, instead writes a farce about narcolepsy and internet porn for niche audiences.