The world according to Quinn

For much of the summer, some unknown new theater director named Jerry Seinfeld has been helping stage a solo by his friend Colin Quinn in a tiny downtown theater on Bleecker Street. The piece, "Long Story Short: History of the World in 75 Minutes," has now sort-of opened to the press, so long as we promise to mention the words "work-in-progress" in the coverage.

So consider yourself warned, though disclaimers on this floppily ambitious and shrewd little show are almost overwhelmingly not necessary. The only seemingly unfinished part is the way Quinn looks when he walks onto the stage in his rumpled black jeans and T-shirt, with tussled toothpicks for hair and a sleepy, slightly incredulous expression, as if he's a little surprised he's supposed to do a show.

And that's fine, partly because the opening material is slow to connect but, mostly, because his shlumpy appearance contrasts so disarmingly with the acuity of his observations. As anyone knows who saw Quinn as Weekend Update anchor on "Saturday Night Live" in the late '90s, the genial facade is cover for topical humor charged with rueful, absurdist indignation about the way we got from there to here.

"Long Story Short" is more stand-up comedy and less of a solo play than "An Irish Wake," his memorable 1998 Broadway imaginings of Irish-Catholics on a neighborhood stoop in Brooklyn. Here he stands in front of a changing projection of antique maps, etc., while he describes the falls of so many empires and marvels how we've ended up the survivors, at least for now.

He sees psycho-political history as the popularity battle of "the smart guys versus the tough guys." The Greeks were the thinkers, the conquering Romans were "the beginning of the mob." He keeps toggling with wit and enormous silliness back to us, touching just about every ancient ethnic sore spot with a quick impersonation, then, somehow, swooping back to Walmart and early-bird specials and Nick Nolte's mug shot.

Inexplicably but conspicuously, he misses Japan and just brushes past Germany. If this really is a work-in-progress, there is work to do about those guys.