Andy's Play

Written by Charlie Grandy and directed by John Stuart Scott, the episode aired on NBC in the United States on October 7, 2010.

The series—presented as if it were a real documentary—depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.

In the episode, Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) lands a role in a local production of Sweeney Todd and invites the entire office to the performance, hoping to impress his former girlfriend, Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper).

He makes a special effort to invite Erin Hannon, whom he hopes to win back with a good performance, by buying tickets for her and Gabe Lewis.

Andy informs him that no one auditioning got the part of Sweeney Todd, which was instead given to a veteran "world class" actor, and Michael agrees to go.

To make matters worse, Michael drops his bottle of wine, causing a commotion as it rolls down through the rows of seats.

Angela Martin, having found a loophole in her parenting contract with Dwight Schrute which permits him to develop romantic feelings for her, attempts to attract him.

But when Dwight becomes lustful, Angela rebuffs him and insists that they count the date as one of their five required instances of sexual intercourse before leaving.

As Andy sulks backstage, his co-workers arrive and cheer him up by encouraging him to sing a rendition of Macy Gray's "I Try" while Darryl accompanies him on piano.

… So we wound up going in that direction.. "Andy's Play" was written by supervising producer Charlie Grandy, his fifth writing credit for the show.

[2] Erin accidentally references The Baby-Sitters Club, a series of novels by Ann M. Martin, when talking about breaking into the babysitting business in Scranton.

[6][13][14] Poniewozik praised "Andy’s flop-sweat attempt to improvise his way out of his cellphone's going off while running up against the limits of what his character knows about Sweeney", calling it "hilarious".

[12] Forcella was complimentary towards "the awkward moment when his phone didn't stop ringing and [Andy] had to explain it on stage", noting that it had "brilliant timing and execution".