A Feminine Ending

Frequently our heroine breaks the fourth wall and addresses us directly, and projections announce each section of the play as if each is a movement in a symphony, but this new show at Playwrights Horizons isn't any more theatrical (or any deeper) than a sitcom. I'm at a loss to decide which of the bland main character's situations is the most shopworn thanks to decades of television and movies: could it be the conflict with her mother, who's one of those cuddly kooks whose wild say-anything inappropriateness is supposed to make us scream with laughter? (Mom is played by Marsha Mason but the cutesy-neurotic character would remind you of Neil Simon at his yuk-hungry worst anyway). Hmm, perhaps it's the conflict she has with her pop star fiance: while she's planning the ceremony she has a meet-cute with another guy who (stop the presses!) is so goofy-loveable that she's got to call off the wedding. For what it is - shallow, derivative - the play has its moments, and half the audience was clearly having a good time. Toward the end one character steps up and behaves like an adult. Too late.