The Look of Love: LaBute's reasons to be pretty Opens on Broadway

By Andrew Gans
and Adam Hetrick
02 Apr 2009

reasons to be pretty stars Thomas Sadoski, Marin Ireland, Steven Pasquale and Piper Perabo
reasons to be pretty stars Thomas Sadoski, Marin Ireland, Steven Pasquale and Piper Perabo
Photo by Robert J. Saferstein

Neil LaBute officially makes his debut as a Broadway playwright when MCC Theater's production of reasons to be pretty, which played an acclaimed Off-Broadway run, opens at the Lyceum Theatre April 2.

Marin Ireland, Steven Pasquale, Piper Perabo and Thomas Sadoski comprise the four-person cast. Terry Kinney directs.

Perabo and Sadoski appeared in MCC Theater's Off-Broadway run of pretty. Ireland and Pasquale joined the cast for the Broadway run. Previews began March 13.

Reasons to be pretty, according to producers, "confronts America's obsession with physical beauty headlong. In Neil LaBute's new play, Greg's (Sadoski) tight-knit social circle is thrown into turmoil when his off-handed remarks about a female co-worker’s pretty face (and his girlfriend's lack thereof) get back to said girlfriend (Ireland). But that's just the beginning."

The work billed as a "comic drama" delves into America's obsession with physical beauty — closing a LaBute trilogy with that same theme that includes The Shape of Things and Fat Pig.

"I hope this play makes a case for being yourself and standing up for what you believe in," LaBute writes in a program note in the Playbill of reasons to be pretty. "For being brave. For making choices that are hard and adult and not easy. For going out and being a part of the world instead of a mere observer. I've written about a lot of men who are really little boys at heart, but Greg, the protagonist in this play, just might be one of the few adults I've ever tackled. 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. A boy grows up and becomes a man. I suppose every writer has one of those stories to tell, and this one is mine."

The Broadway mounting features scenic design by David Gallo, costume design by Sarah J. Holden, lighting design by David Weiner, music and sound design by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen and fight direction by Manny Siverio.

Producers are Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, MCC Theater, Gary Goddard Entertainment, Ted Snowdon, Doug Nevin/Erica Lynn Schwartz, Ronald Frankel/Bat-Barry Productions, Kathleen Seidel, Kelpie Arts, LLC, Jam Theatricals, Rachel Helson/Heather Provost.

For LaBute, MCC's resident playwright, this was his sixth work produced by the company. MCC previously presented LaBute's The Mercy Seat, The Distance From Here, Fat Pig, Some Girl(s) and In a Dark Dark House. MCC also produced a one-night benefit evening of his plays, Autobahn. Other LaBute works include bash: latter-day plays, The Shape of Things, This Is How It Goes and Wrecks and the films "In the Company of Men," "Your Friends and Neighbors," "Nurse Betty," "Possession" and "Wicker Man."

Anne Bowles and Michael D. Dempsey are understudies in reasons to be pretty.

The Lyceum Theatre is located in Manhattan at 149 West 45th Street. Tickets are available by visiting www.telecharge.com or by calling (212) 239-6200.