Tragedy, sped up

THEATER REVIEW

SHIDA
Ars Nova, 511 W. 54th St.; 866-811-4111. Through Aug. 28. Running time: 75 minutes, no intermission.

'Shida" may last just over an hour, but it's so action-packed, you feel you're watching it in fast-forward. This could actually be fun, except that this new solo musical vaults from one melodramatic cliché to another.

It seems as if writer-performer Jeannette Bayardelle ("The Color Purple," "Hair") didn't set out to create a story but an audition reel for herself. In addition to playing the title heroine from the ages of 9 to 30, she also impersonates Shida's mother, teacher, best friend and a couple of lovers.

We first meet Shida as she's smoking crack, so we watch the flashback that follows with 20/20 foresight: The happy little fourth-grader is going to crash and burn.

From a young age, Shida wants to be a writer. But her world unravels: She's sexually abused by a family friend, then finds an escape in promiscuity.

In quick succession she becomes pregnant, has an abortion, gets into NYU, loses her mom, falls into drugs and prostitution. This all happens in a rush, with no emotional development. The overall impression is of either a really fast after-school special or a really slow public-service announcement.

Bayardelle has a fine singing voice, even if she wrote herself some gratuitously overwrought bits to showcase it. Still, the score is as nondescript as the characterizations.

By the time the obligatory redemption rolls around, you wonder why Bayardelle didn't include a teary appearance on "Oprah" for Shida. Maybe she's saving it for a sequel.

elisabeth.vincentelli@nypost.com

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