In A View from 151st Street, being presented by the LAByrinth Theatre Company at the Public Theater's LuEsther Hall, playwright Bob Glaudini takes us to the mean streets of West Harlem, where lives literally change overnight and death comes in an instant. As with his last LAByrinth outing, the equally frustrating Jack Goes Boating, Glaudini creates a world with authenticity to spare and a host of believable characters -- and then ultimately squanders his gifts on unconvincing plotting and spotty structure.

The play, ably directed by Peter DuBois, begins with a drug-deal-in-the-making between supplier and wannabe rapper Delroy (the charismatic Craig "muMs" Grant) and the scruffy Daniel (an [...]