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A 'Pretty' intense play

By Matt Windman | amNY theater critic

11:41 AM EDT, June 2, 2008

Alison Pill and Thomas Sadoski in a scene from MCC TheaterÂs production of 'reasons to be pretty.' (handout)

Just as the Fringe Festival takes place in August and Richard Foreman's avant-garde spectacles start in January, the premiere of the latest Neil LaBute drama every June at the Lucille Lortel Theatre has become a new tradition in downtown theatergoing.

All of Neil LaBute's plays explore the same basic themes -- deceit within relationships, cruelty, misogyny, violence, and good people doing bad things. He always employs caustic, cursive language.

Yet most of his recent plays -- "This is How It Goes," "Some Girl(s)" and "In a Dark Dark House" -- have felt shallow and uninspired, failing to live up to his better relationship dramas, which tapped into the contemporary human consciousness with compelling storylines.

"reasons to be pretty," LaBute's latest comic drama, confronts our obsession with physical beauty. It completes a trilogy that includes "The Shape of Things" and "Fat Pig," LaBute's best plays. Though "reasons to be pretty" needs further revision, it has received a gripping production, as directed by Steppenwolf Theatre guru Terry Kinney.

"The play talks a bit about our country's (and, by extension, the world's) obsession with physical beauty, but it's really the first coming-of-age story I've written," LaBute writes in a program note. "A boy grows up and becomes a man. I suppose every writer has one of those stories to tell, and this one is mine."

When the play begins, Greg's (Thomas Sadoski) girlfriend Steph (Alison Pill) is in a fit of anger. It seems that his offhand remark about a female coworker's pretty face (and his girlfriend's lack thereof) got back to her. She storms out and the relationship is over.

Perhaps the production's biggest surprise is the casting of Alison Pill as the supposedly average-looking girlfriend. Ms. Pill, who received a Tony nomination for "The Lieutenant of Inishmore," is pretty gorgeous, hardly plain, and rather miscast.

Though the play is overwritten, filled with verbose language and unnecessary monologues where the characters confront the audience, "reasons to be pretty" is an inspired exploration of just how devastating any unintentional commentary on physicality can become.

Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher St, 212-279-4200, $59. Tues-Wed 7pm, Thurs-Fri 8pm, Sat 2 & 8pm, Sun 3pm. Thru July