Playwright Neil LaBute’s drama reasons to be pretty explores the effects on our ability to have relationships in a culture obsessed with body image.
What This Show Is About
The four-character play reasons to be pretty takes place over a season in the life of four late-twenty-something working class friends.
A thoughtless comment by Greg that his girlfriend, Steph, is common looking gets back to her. It rocks their relationship. Meanwhile, Greg’s longtime buddy Kent makes Greg the unwilling accomplice of Kent’s unfaithfulness to his wife, Carly.
What You’ll Like About ‘reasons to be pretty’
Neil LaBute has a terrific ear for the dialogue of real people. These are blue-collar kids, warehouse workers, a security guard, a hairdresser. Someone else’s clock runs their lives. When things go wrong in those areas where they do have control, such as their relationships, a whole lot of anger erupts. LaBute nails the offensive-defensive give-and-take that makes up most conversations we have with those to whom we don’t really owe any courtesy.
reasons to be pretty runs two hours, and the pace never lags. This is due in large part to LaBute’s ability to make us care for or dislike his characters. But it also speaks to fine performances.
Who’s Who and What’s What
Thomas Sadoski, as Greg, is the moral center of reasons to be pretty. Something’s wrong, and he knows it, but he doesn’t know what it is exactly, and his journey toward understanding is excellent. Marin Ireland (Steph) gives a heart-touching performance as the girl who finds out her boyfriend doesn’t think she’s pretty. It starts her on a journey of her own. Steven Pasquale is Kent, a character whom at first you hate to like, but do, then like to hate, and do that, too. Pasquale has an angry energy that lights up the stage. And Piper Perabo is the beautiful but gruff Carly. Every guy in the theater was squirming as she questions Greg about Kent’s dallying.
Terry Kinney, a co-founder of Steppenwolf Theatre Company, gives us a well-paced, well-realized two hours. And hats off to scenic designer David Gallo. If you’ve never worked in a warehouse, trust me, he nailed it, just as he, with bench and music, puts us in the quintessential American Mall.
Where and When
- Lyceum Theatre
149 West 45th Street
- Show Times and Tickets
- Previews: March 13, 2009
- Opening: April 2, 2009
- Closing: Open-ended run
- Run Time: 2 hours (including intermission)
- Genrre: Drama
- Advisories:
For mature audiences
Profanity
Simulated fight