Yeah, I think I like the light-handedness of it -- I think it's just enough to make the joy and humor of it feel more significant. Like, the play reminds you that it does know that awfulness exists even and that it could be grim if it so chose, and then very pointedly and deliberately chooses optimism anyway.

(I would believe they trimmed some of it to get it tighter -- is it always intermission-less, do you know, or is that a Chelsea Theater thing?)