‘Girl’s Guide’ Finds Laughs in Singlehood

While Heidi, across town, is chronicling with self-pity the devastation the last three decades have wreaked on women, Cynthia, Cleo and Rita are offering their own “Girl’s Guide to Chaos” at the Tiffany Theatre.

But playwright Cynthia Heimel’s women have an advantage over Wendy Wasserstein’s Heidi. They can laugh at themselves. Though they take their plight seriously, they’re much easier to like. Part of their charm is in Heimel’s writing, crackling with insight and genuinely funny.

They dismiss the three-decade onslaught in the first 10 minutes and concentrate on what they’re doing now, which they agree is finding a relationship in the shambles that’s left of the singles market. Director Robin Saex keeps them hopping and knows exactly where the laughs are--at practically every other line.

There’s also the delectable performance of Debra Jo Rupp as Cynthia, without whom the “guide” might be less illuminating. She’s a wonder, especially in a riotous monologue on the “macabre” ritual of dating. Running close are Deborah Adair and Kimberly Scott as her equally witty and wise girlfriends, Scott Jaeck as all the men in their lives, and Ricki Lake as a part-time job junkie. Today’s single woman can find her sense of humor here.

At 8532 Sunset Blvd.; Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 7 and 9:30 p.m.; runs indefinitely. $18-$22; (213) 289-2999.