Steppenwolf’sThree-Headed Chick Lit

The Chicago-based Steppenwolf theater company has a Manhattan parallel at the Atlantic theater company, but New Yorkers still drool over the idea of a theatrical collective that can afford to keep its members at least intermittently employed. Luckily for New Yorkers, Steppenwolf has developed First Look New York Repertory — thoroughly work-shopped pieces that receive their nominal premiere here. This time, though, they haven’t sent over the new Sam Shepard or Tracy Letts, meaty plays full of ambition and challenge and ranting John Malkovitches. Instead, they’re presenting “When the Messenger is Hot,” an inoffensive chick-lit bauble.Laura Eason adapted Elizabeth Crane’s short story collection of the same name by collapsing the serial protagonists into one — Josie — who confronts the squalls of modern life with a consistently high-strung humor. Perhaps in an effort to recall the collection’s many voices, Ms. Eason gives Josie’s life to three actresses: Kate Arrington plays her sweet side, Lauren Katz plays her sarcastic side, and Amy Warren does the kissing. The three women cluster supportively together, each in a pastel cardigan, although each one does take command in a given scene. The others hang over her shoulder, advising or voicing shock. When Ms. Warren’s version of Josie dates below her age group, it’s up to the others to hiss, “He’s schedule-free! You take naps!”Josie has more on her mind than dating, however. After losing her mother to cancer, she enters a state of denial so profound that she keeps up her mother’s magazine subscriptions. Sure that her mum will return, Josie is barely surprised when she does reappear, thanks to “a tunnel system that shuttles you out of graveyards when there’s a mix-up.” A brisk, foul-mouthed opera singer, Mom (Molly Regan) bustles back from the Beyond, vastly irritated by its location in Podunk, North Dakota, and its disappointing selection of snacks. Her tartness cuts the sweet, and, for a moment, “Messenger” has something to say. Unfortunately, the storyline soon slips back into Josie’s endless search for Mr. Right.Ms. Eason does what she can with Ms. Crane’s mania for boyfriends (all played by Coburn Goss). By tripling her central character, Ms. Eason’s Josie has at least the appearance of a social circle, and girls with whom to giggle over the latest male idiocy. Other than her co-selves, though, Josie seems to exist in a black hole that admits only terrible dates past its event horizon. We do learn that Josie is a writer, but mostly she swoons — for the guy with pitbulls, for a sympathetic fry-cook, for a supportive fellow she takes to be a messenger from God.Director Jessica Thebus oversees a swift, alert production, one that moves briskly past its flaws and dwells comfortably in its strengths. Of the three Josies, Katherine Heigl-look-alike Ms. Arrington gets the most stage time, though Ms. Warren and Ms. Katz cut more sharply into the material. Even Ms. Katz’s delicate hints of anger come as a relief, since serious subjects — the mother’s death, confusion about faith — come and go with barely a ripple in this Sex and the Windy City atmosphere. Most of the play simply zips down the slopes of modern romance, which may strike some audiences as a good vacation. You’ll only be disappointed if you hoped that a woman, clearly so intelligent and wry, would try for the Black Diamond.Until October 28 (59 E. 59th St., between Madison and Park avenues, 212-753-5959).

Steppenwolf’sThree-Headed Chick Lit

Steppenwolf’sThree-Headed Chick Lit

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