‘Women or Nothing,’ theater review

Ethan Coen’s first full-length play, “Women or Nothing,” is a great-looking, old-fashioned sex comedy that’s built for laughs but not for scrutiny. Think too much about this theatrical soufflé and it sinks flat.

Set in a mouth-watering New York duplex that screams money and success, it’s a show about moral ambiguity and an ambush. Gretchen (a feisty and convincing Hallie Feiffer), a lawyer, and her girlfriend Laura (Susan Pourfar), a concert pianist, want a baby. Badly.

Adoption? Pass. Sperm donor? Gretchen, who’s infertile, says no: “That’s not meeting the genes.”

So Laura, a “gold-star lesbian” who’s never been with a man, reluctantly decides to take a bullet. The ruse: Invite Gretchen’s colleague Chuck (Robert Beitzel, natural and winning) to drop something off at their apartment, where Laura will pose as a neighbor who has a key to the unit. Once inside, she’ll trick him into the sack.

Laura’s wild-at-heart mother, Dorene (Deborah Rush, a comic ace and impressive), shows up just in time to nudge out some unsettling realities about the only seemingly perfect Chuck. To say more would be a spoiler.

Few writers wed funny and off-center as well as Coen, an Oscar winner who’s toggled between one-act works and films since 2008. But in his 105-minute, two-act show, he’s packed in contrivances and moments that make you go hmmm. For instance, after Laura frolics in her "neighbor's" bed, would she really help herself to Gretchen's nightgown the following morning? That’s not very neighborly.

On the plus side, Coen’s script boasts deliciously dexterous dialogue and an intoxicating bit with a cocktail shaker. The sublime centerpiece heart-to-heart between Laura and her potential inseminator zigzags and zings toward an inevitable tryst.

Despite some plot holes, roles as juicy as Laura are rare — and much coveted. Director David Cromer, who’s guided the beautifully designed production, could’ve cast big-name star power. Instead he lets an exceptional, but not famous, actress breathe life into the character. Pourfar, recently seen as the woman going deaf in “Tribes,” which Cromer staged, captures Laura’s precision and insecurity. It’s a can’t-miss performance that’s undeniably gold-star terrific.

jdziemianowicz@nydailynews.com