“Mean Girls on speed” is an apt way to describe Leslye Headland’s shatteringly perceptive comic drama now playing courtesy of Second Stage Theatre’s Uptown Series. Wildly entertaining as it explores the motivations of feminine cruelty (via a sextet of fantastic performances), BACHELORETTE has been extended twice -- most recently through August 28. Theater-lovers owe it to themselves to catch this sensational play by an exciting new playwright.

Katherine Waterston, Tracee Chimo and Celia Keenan-Bolger. Photo by Joan Marcus.

At a posh luxury hotel on the eve of Becky’s wedding, her “friends” gather to bitch about the fact that a fat girl is getting married before they do – to a handsome, successful hedge fund manager, no less. The room is actually Becky’s honeymoon suite, and her duplicitous maid of honor has invited a couple of old high school cronies to party for the night. Between hits of coke, chugs of pilfered champagne, and copious pill-popping, the young women note that two of them could fit in Becky’s plus-size wedding dress – an observation that serves as a catalyst for an evening that quickly goes south.

BACHELORETTE features a truly exceptional acting ensemble. As the maid of honor and ringmaster of the evening, Tracee Chimo delivers a standout performance as a character that's 180 degrees from the shy, mousy teenager she played so beautifully in last season’s Circle Mirror Transformation. Watch the reptilian smile creep across her egotistical lips as she tells lie after lie – this is a girl who clearly enjoys wreaking havoc on people’s lives for sport.

Celia Keenan-Bolger is a revelation, too – audience members who know her only from her Tony-nominated work in musicals will be unprepared for the jittery coke-addled intensity she brings to her role of a former prom queen who now bounces from job to job in the retail sector. Katherine Waterston is also a performer to watch as the third member of the tyrannical trio, and the only one who attempts to set things right.

Tracee Chimo and Eddie Kaye Thomas. Photo by Joan Marcus.

The rest of the cast is equally superlative. As a pair of guys who join the party and inadvertently serve as moral compasses, Eddie Kaye Thomas (who brings to mind a young Tom Hanks) and the Fran Kranz (as a sensitive pothead with a unique perspective on the appeal of Marilyn Monroe) ground the play beautifully. And in the brief time she spends on stage in the pivotal role of the bride-to-be, Carmen M. Herlihy calmly but pointedly demonstrates why her character has risen above the petty world of her former classmates.

Leslye Headland’s trenchant script is pitch-perfect, deftly balancing rude comedy with poignance and capturing the unique relationship between young females, in which acceptance by bullies is essential for social survival.

Due credit is due to 2econd Stage Theatre and its increasingly essential Uptown series dedicated to the next generation of theatre artists, which "seeks to develop the skills of emerging playwrights, to provide early-career artists with the support of a major artistic institution, and to create new plays for the American Theatre."

According to Headland’s bio, this is one play in a cycle of works inspired by the seven deadly sins (BACHELORETTEexplores gluttony). How about it, New York theatre producers – when do audience members get to see the rest of the series?

BACHELORETTE performs at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre (Broadway & 76th Street, 3rd floor through Saturday August 28 on the following schedule: Monday-Saturday at 7:30pm, Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm Tickets for performances of BACHELORETTE can be purchased at the Second Stage Theatre Box Office (305 West 43rd Street), by calling (212) 246-4422 or online at www.2st.com. Advance tickets are not available at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre. Single tickets are $50; advance youth tickets (age 30 and under) are $20; and student rush tickets are $10 (available 30 minutes prior to curtain).