I'll need a bit more info, though, to put this into context:

You select a track from a playlist in iTunes - and you then have to close the menu and then wait 2 seconds before anything happens?

Or does it simply take longer from the moment you click to the moment playback starts?

What Mac are you using, do you have the iTunes sidebar hidden or shown by default - and how many tracks are in the playlist you tried with?

Thanks in advance.

Best regards, 
Felix Schwarz