Ethan Coen, whose best known for his Oscar-winning film work with his older brother, Joel, brings his distinct sensibility to Let’s Love!, a collection of three short playlets that are less about love than the very human desire for physical connection. Which is to say, sex. True to form, Coen shows a knack for dark humor, oddball characters, and expletive-laden dialogue that can be so blunt it might be considered a lethal weapon. The show also boasts a ringer-filled cast led by Aubrey Plaza as a feral force of nature who even plays a mean saxophone at the curtain call. (Yes, you read that right.)

In the first scene, we meet the talkative denizen of a urban bar (Mary McCann) who unloads a long soliloquy about her insatiable appetite for sex and her self-proclaimed proficiency with an astonishing, blush-inducing frankness. “I had that man’s penis sitting up and doing tricks,” she said of the Major League Baseball player she bedded back in the late 1960s, adding that she was happy to pursue an interracial fling and “break the color barrier like it was Spode china.” McCann’s a hoot, embodying a boozy avatar of a certain type of survivor of the Sexual Revolution and fleshing out a character billed in the Playbill as “The Broad.” (McCann was also a standout in Coen’s 2008 assemblage of playlets, Almost an Evening, which was similarly performed at the Atlantic Theater Company under the briskly efficient direction of Neil Pepe.)

McCann delivers her monologue seated beside a milquetoast businessman in a suit (Dion Graham), a guy who not only has a herringbone fedora but orders a Tanqueray and tonic out of season. He eventually introduces himself to us and, later to the “broad” beside him (as her character is identified in the Playbill) — and he proves to be a solid, not-unhappily married man who seems game for a fling if one should present itself. Like many of the men in Let’s Love!, he’s not very interesting.

It’s the women who dominate these scenes — particularly Aubrey Plaza as a forthright sexpot who hires an off-duty cop (Chris Bauer) to beat up the guy (CJ Wilson) who just dumped her for another woman (Mary Wiseman) of comparably out-there sexual scruples. Notably, Plaza bargains with Bauer’s aviator sunglasses-wearing thug over the price of his services, demanding a cash discount coupled with a few rolls in the hay that she promises will rock his world. She delivers cutting insults and seductive come-ons with equal fervor — and she’s well-matched by Wiseman in the ability to out-alpha the men in her life through baby-voiced sweet talk or high-volume braying. (Bauer and Wilson, meanwhile, offer variations on the hapless, outmatched heroes of the Coen cinematic universe.)

Between the scenes, cabaret vet Nellie McKay provides a series of charmingly old-fashioned original songs — at the outset dressed in black tie, tails, and top hat while seated at a baby grand piano, and later donning a folkiser outfit while playing acoustic guitar and harmonica. (Costumes by Peggy Schnitzer.) She offers a bridge between the segments as the spare, dual-turntable set (by Riccardo Hernandez) spins to set up the next location — though her vibe is more winsome and far less edgy than the material she’s bookending.

In the final scene, we get a peek at the first throes of love between an eager-to-please nebbish (Noah Robbins, who also appears briefly in the second act) and an improbably accommodating young woman billed only as Girl (Dylan Gelula). This romance blossoms from a first date that goes epically wrong thanks to a well-staged bit of body malfunction. Despite the gross-out factor, this sketch turns out to be the most romantic of the bunch — and also the thinnest dramatically. “Aren’t they sweet?” McKay soon tells us, quickly adding, “They’re rescues.” Let’s Love is a pretty light meal, but it showcases some memorable performances by a first-rate cast. ★★★☆☆

LET’S LOVE!
Atlantic Theater Company, Off Broadway
Running time: 90 minutes (with no intermission)
Tickets on sale through November 22 for $57 to $202