reasons to be pretty
Opening Night: January 1, 1970
Closing: January 1, 2009
Theater: Lucille Lortel Theatre
America’s obsession with physical beauty is confronted head-on as Greg’s tight-knit social circle is thrown into turmoil when his offhanded remarks about a female coworker’s pretty face (and his girlfriend’s lack thereof) get back to said girlfriend.
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April 22, 2014
Neil LaBute has never been the guy to go to if you’re looking to get all misty eyed. The savagely comic work of this dramatist and screenwriter — whose credits include the plays “bash” and “Fat Pig” and the film “In the Company of Men” — has always been more likely to elicit flinching, wincing, recoiling in repugnance and gasping (or smiling cynically) at the perfidy of the human beast.
READ THE REVIEWApril 22, 2014
The complicated, often explosive relationships between men and women are a source of eternal, often contrary fascination for Neil LaBute, and they have been superbly realized in "Reasons to Be Pretty," his most compassionate, appealing work to date.
READ THE REVIEWApril 22, 2014
It takes a tender man to make plays as tough as Neil LaBute’s. No contemporary writer has more astutely captured the brutality in everyday conversation and behavior; that kind of insight requires sensitivity and soul-searching.
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April 22, 2014
As its title suggests, "Reasons to Be Pretty" deals to some extent with a culture in thrall to physical beauty. However, the real subject of this taut, unexpectedly affecting drama is a man forced to take a long, hard look at himself after a flippant comment about his girlfriend’s appearance kills their relationship. Nobody’s going to call Neil LaBute a redemptive playwright, and even in this reflective mood, he’s not exactly forgiving about men’s failings and women’s weaknesses. But there’s compassion and even tenderness running through this play that make it one of his best..
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April 22, 2014
Playwright/provocateur Neil LaBute has explored our obsession with physical appearance and the way it wreaks havoc on relationships in such works as "Fat Pig" and "The Shape of Things." But "reasons to be pretty," the third entry in this unofficial trilogy, cuts even deeper than its predecessors. Marking the playwright’s belated Broadway debut, this lacerating and extremely funny work should appeal to younger theatergoers especially.
READ THE REVIEWJune 3, 2008
A firestorm of abuse and invective, hot enough to scald the hide off a thick-skinned man, blasts through the opening minutes of “Reasons to Be Pretty,” the surprising new play by Neil LaBute that opened Monday night in a superbly acted production at the Lucille Lortel Theater.
READ THE REVIEWApril 2, 2009
"Neil LaBute has never been the guy to go to if you’re looking to get all misty eyed. The savagely comic work of this dramatist and screenwriter — whose credits include the plays “bash” and “Fat Pig” and the film “In the Company of Men” — has always been more likely to elicit flinching, wincing, recoiling in repugnance and gasping (or smiling cynically) at the perfidy of the human beast."
READ THE REVIEWApril 2, 2009
"The complicated, often explosive relationships between men and women are a source of eternal, often contrary fascination for Neil LaBute, and they have been superbly realized in "Reasons to Be Pretty," his most compassionate, appealing work to date."
READ THE REVIEWApril 2, 2009
"It takes a tender man to make plays as tough as Neil LaBute’s. No contemporary writer has more astutely captured the brutality in everyday conversation and behavior; that kind of insight requires sensitivity and soul-searching."
READ THE REVIEWApril 2, 2009
"As its title suggests, "Reasons to Be Pretty" deals to some extent with a culture in thrall to physical beauty. However, the real subject of this taut, unexpectedly affecting drama is a man forced to take a long, hard look at himself after a flippant comment about his girlfriend’s appearance kills their relationship. Nobody’s going to call Neil LaBute a redemptive playwright, and even in this reflective mood, he’s not exactly forgiving about men’s failings and women’s weaknesses. But there’s compassion and even tenderness running through this play that make it one of his best.."
READ THE REVIEWApril 2, 2009
"Playwright/provocateur Neil LaBute has explored our obsession with physical appearance and the way it wreaks havoc on relationships in such works as "Fat Pig" and "The Shape of Things." But "reasons to be pretty," the third entry in this unofficial trilogy, cuts even deeper than its predecessors. Marking the playwright’s belated Broadway debut, this lacerating and extremely funny work should appeal to younger theatergoers especially."
READ THE REVIEW