PERFECT Days, a romantic comedy which runs at Basingstoke's Haymarket Theatre until November 11, is the stage equivalent of the chick flick.
Okay, it's appeal partially bridges the gender gap, but the play is marinated in oestrogen and even one of the (gay) male characters fawns over George Clooney, craves Haagen Dazs and idolises Judy Garland.
The central character, Barbs Marshall (Susannah Elliot-Knight) is 39, recently divorced and career-wise has everything going for her, being the partner in a trendy hairdressers and the presenter of a day-time TV makeover show.
But the trappings of her success (a modish quayside penthouse and designer clothes) can't compensate for a chasm in her life - the ever-growing urge to have a baby.
But who with? Her relationship with her ex-husband Dave (Tony Bell) is well and truly over - he's ensconced with a much younger bimbo - and her only close male friend is her gay business partner Brendan Boyle (Kevin Moore).
Mind you, all Barbs wants is a donor, not a full-time father, and so begins her search for someone to deliver the "product".
The play is like an old-fashioned English farce given a contemporary edge. There's been a surfeit of books and TV dramas lately about thirtysomething women craving boyfriends, careers and babies and Perfect Days fits firmly into this Bridget Jones mould with references to biological clocks, the ageing process and nights in watching ER.
Perfect Days is less inhibited than the traditional farce, with writer Liz Lochhead not afraid of a bit of sauce and the odd - but never gratuitous - expletive.
Barbs is full of yearning but she is a hard character to warm to. No Meg Ryan dippyness here, Barbs is a sharp-tounged, quick-witted and strident control freak.
If she were to get pregnant, you could imagine her consulting eye-colour charts and specifying height, weight and gender.
Quite what a young man with the world at his feet like Grant (Edward Wightman as a short-term toyboy) sees in someone so domineering is a mystery.
She pours her heart out - albeit it in a strident kind of way - to close friend Alice (Kate Brown), the aforementioned Brendan and her no-nonsense, head-scarved, red stilleto-wearing mother Sadie (Diana Fairfax).
Along the way there are some nice one-liners and farcical moments - not least one involving a turkey baster (use your imagination).
Two minor criticisms. First, the two-and-a-half hour play is slow-going and could have done with being shed by half-an-hour. Second, Barbs and her gay confidante Brendan were half dramatis personae, half cartoon stereotypes.
That aside, Perfect Days is a nicely observed, technically clever ensemble piece. A frothy and enjoyable Rom Com for the stage.
James Bowman