Reason to Return
At the urging of Santa Barbara Film Festival Roger Durling, I went last night to Neil LaBute's reasons to be pretty. A fiercely written and brilliantly acted (especially by costars Marin Ireland and Thomas Sadoski) twentysomething relationship drama, it's the most emotionally affecting and -- curiously out-of-character as this sounds -- compassionate LaBute work ever. It's surely the most satisfying live experience I've had in this town since God of Carnage, and the wisest $111 I've spent in a long , long time.
But brush away descriptions of reasons to be pretty (the lower case is mandated the play's marketers) as a blistering examination of why male-sourced affirmations of conventional attractiveness are seen as vital by their female partners. For this is a bracing dive into wrenching emotional waters and a full-on dunk into 21st Century relationships among GenX/GenY clock punchers.
The four-character play is primarily a growing-up saga as experienced by Sadoski's Greg -- a morally aware and likably literate guy working a dead-end factory job and living with Steph (Ireland), his girlfriend of four years. Greg's coworker and confidante is Kent (Steven Pasquale), a bright but loutish stud-muscle type married to Carly (Piper Perabo), who works as a security guard at the factory.
The story is triggered by a remark Greg has made to Kent (overheard and reported to Steph by Carly) that he considers Steph's face to be "normal," which means, of course, well short of hot, pretty, fetching, foxy, etc. He tells Steph in the play's opening argument -- a corker -- that he meant this as a compliment, which she rejects out of hand. To her (and to most women out there, I presume) "normal" is a primal and devastating slap to the soul, and she's so enraged that she leaves him hours later. [More on this in a piece called "Just Hot Enough."]
The meat of the play is about how this loss shocks Greg and causes him to start listening to himself and his friends more carefully, and where this process finally takes him.
Sadoski, Ireland, Perabo, Pasquale.
The final scene between Greg and Steph is one of the saddest and most moving what-might-have-been exchanges I've ever witnessed in any context. Not in a play or a film -- in my life, I mean. Sadoski and Ireland are flat-out devastating. This is what world-class relationship dramas do, I told myself as I watched. It's not that movies don't deliver dialogue and acting of this calibre -- they don't even seem to try. Most of the time they don't even step into the batter's box.
And there are people who've actually said they don't understand what this play is about or why it was produced...God!
I'd like to see reasons to be pretty again soon and take Jett with me, but I'd better move quickly, I gather. Durling and other sources are reporting that ticket sales have been slow all along, and that without a Tony win on Sunday night -- it's been nominated for best play and best lead male performance in a play (i.e., Sadoski) -- it may close soon after. Unfortunately a 6.5 pulse-taking piece by N.Y. Times reporter Patrick Healy suggests that it won't win on either count. Life is unfair and then some.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on June 6, 2009 at 7:50 AM
comment #1
actionman
says ...
Sounds great, LaBute is a genius.
And Pasquale has been brilliant on Rescue Me, especially this season. Emmy worthy.
Posted by actionman
at June 6, 2009 9:34 AM
comment #2
George Prager
says ...
So his plays are better than his movies? Only Kevin Smith, Edward Burns and Ed Wood are worse directors.
Posted by George Prager
at June 6, 2009 9:47 AM
comment #3
Travis Crabtree
says ...
I'm waiting for his next film, "Men Are Evil, Misogynistic Assholes And I Hate Them".
Posted by Travis Crabtree
at June 6, 2009 9:59 AM
comment #4
Josh Massey
says ...
Yeah, Pasquale has really turned it up on "Rescue Me" this season - well, hell, pretty much everybody has. It has been an actor's showcase.
Posted by Josh Massey
at June 6, 2009 10:00 AM
comment #5
Gnome de Guerre
says ...
Jeff, would balcony seats be good enough to get the full impact of the performances?
Posted by Gnome de Guerre
at June 6, 2009 10:15 AM
comment #6
George Prager
says ...
No Gnome, you have to be in the front row so you can smell their shit.
Posted by George Prager
at June 6, 2009 10:33 AM
comment #7
rr3333
says ...
$111 bucks Jeff?
Go to TKTS and get them for $40.
Posted by rr3333
at June 6, 2009 11:03 AM
comment #8
CitizenKanedforChewingGum
says ...
Ed Wood is a better director than the majority of the current Hollywood A-list.
Michael Bay, for example.
Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum
at June 6, 2009 11:26 AM
comment #9
CitizenKanedforChewingGum
says ...
And not to sound too crass, but what is up with Perabo's face?
I mean, she has always had a young-looking face, but instead of growing out of it, her body continues to mature while her face appears to be aging backwards. Bonita Button?
She is 32 years old for f's sake. She could easily pass for about half of that, at least from the shoulders up.
The same can be said of Alison Lohman, although even she is three younger than Perabo!
Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum
at June 6, 2009 11:33 AM
comment #10
George Prager
says ...
I like broads that look like cartoon characters.
Posted by George Prager
at June 6, 2009 12:03 PM
comment #11
poseidon72
says ...
I always believed that Piper Perabo would become a star after Coyote Ugly. Say what you want about the film (I enjoyed it) she lite up the screen and had great charisma. Glad she getting notice for this play!
Chuck
'http://blog.entertainmenttodayandbeyond.com/
Posted by poseidon72
at June 6, 2009 12:24 PM
comment #12
Rod32303
says ...
I paid $111 for God of Carnage and loved it. NOw I wish I had seen reasons to be pretty. Passed by its theater six times. Saw 33 Variations - nice work by all, especially Fonda, but my favorite and the one that still resonates with me is Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Saw it in previews - two months before the night of Barack and Michelle and Meryl...and I still am haunted.
LaBute's stage plays READ as devastating as they are acted. Pick up "Fat Pig," "In A Dark House," "Some Girls," and "Wrecks" and see if you don't agree.
Posted by Rod32303
at June 6, 2009 2:34 PM
comment #13
btwnproductions
says ...
It should be pretty easy to find good orchestra seats for reasons, particularly on weeknights, at the new-and-improved TKTS booth at Duffy Square. It has a plays-only window, so you don't have to fight with the Phantom crowd.
Posted by btwnproductions
at June 6, 2009 3:06 PM
comment #14
TM
says ...
Plus there are discounts galore for the show -- the producers have tried everything short of offering cash to audiences to see this show -- and yet ... I wonder how many people are put off by it being a play by Neil LaBute. His other work often leaves a bad taste with some people that I fear people may be staying away. Perhaps in the future he should take on a pseudonym for his playwriting duties.
Posted by TM
at June 6, 2009 5:28 PM
comment #15
erniesouchak
says ...
I think the only play I'd pay $111 to see is the original Broadway production of "Streetcar."
Posted by erniesouchak
at June 6, 2009 9:11 PM
comment #16
btwnproductions
says ...
It's closing 6/14, so get there soon.
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/130000-Reasons_to_Be_Pretty_to_Close_on_Broadway_June_14
The Tony-winning EXIT THE KING and JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE are also closing this Sunday, but those were limited runs.
Posted by btwnproductions
at June 8, 2009 2:38 PM
comment #17
free games
says ...
Ed Wood is a better director than the majority
Posted by free games
at November 3, 2009 3:05 AM
comment #18
gafi
says ...
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Best regards,Jane, CEO of high availability virtualization
Posted by gafi
at May 23, 2011 5:19 AM