Just because a play is brief doesn’t mean it has to fit a mold. The three entries in “Summer Shorts Series B” show the many shapes and forms a miniature can take — but then, they’re by writers as radically different as Paul Rudnick and Neil LaBute.
In “Cabin Pressure,” Rudnick (“The Greatest Story Ever Told”) went for a monologue — in this case, a speech by a gay flight attendant who’s receiving a presidential medal for valor.
“How do I feel after saving an entire plane filled with passengers from a terrorist?” asks Ronald (Peter Bartlett, one of Rudnick’s favorite accomplices). “Three words: fabulous.”
Ronald’s plane happened to be full of celebrities on their way to the Golden Globes, and the campy quips fly thick and fast. Rudnick’s not in his usual wicked form, though, and too many references — Pia Zadora, Karen Black, even Celine Dion — stopped being funny years, if not decades, ago.
The evening’s longest piece, “Love and Real Estate,” is a musical adaptation of “The Three Little Pigs.”
Here, the Bacon sisters — one of them played by former “Avenue Q” star Stephanie D’Abruzzo — move to Manhattan, where they meet a deceptively nice young man (Kevin Greene).
Sean Hartley’s book adds a fun twist in the shape of a narrator (Edward Hibbert) with a sinister agenda. And Sam Davis’ catchy melodies, backed by Eric Kang on piano, deliver killer hooks, whether they’re rollicking boogies or nods to the classic 1930s style.
They deserve better than Hartley’s witless, below-the-belt lyrics:
“The parquet floors were very hard,” Hibbert sings in the title song. “And he had hard wood, too.”
The most nastily satisfying of the bunch is LaBute’s “The Furies,” which unfolds within a self-contained single scene.
Barry (Victor Slezak) has some bad news for his sullen younger lover, Jimmy (J.J. Kandel). He’s facing two people instead of one, though: Jimmy brought his sister, Jamie (Alicia Goranson), to the lunch meeting. “For backup,” he explains. “In case you get all weird on me here.”
This is by the man known for cruel shows like “Fat Pig” and “reasons to be pretty,” so things do get all weird.
I won’t spoil the ending, but “The Furies” peaks with the most berserk three minutes of the entire summer. The play may be the size of a cupcake, but there’s space for a razor blade inside.