Bass for Picasso

Kate Moira Ryan likes one-liners (she honed her skills on Judy Gold’s one-woman shows), but in stringing them into this ham-handed dinner farce, she so depresses us with illogic, tonal U-turns and contradictory characterization that we’re left in no mood to be amused. Admittedly, jokes fly or fail based on their delivery, and Ike Schambelan’s cast torpedoes every single one. Some—like Anita Hollander’s amputee food critic—seem under-rehearsed; others don’t have the craft to land a punch line.—Helen Shaw