LaBute's 'reasons to be pretty' Set for Lyceum, Previews Begin 3/6

Due to encouraging business on Broadway this fall with four dramatic hits, it was announced today that this season's production of Neil LaBute's new play reasons to be pretty will play the Lyceum Theatre (149 West 45th Street).  

Terry Kinney will direct Mr. LaBute's Broadway debut.  The show will go into rehearsals on Friday, February 16, 2009 with preview performances slated to begin Friday, March 12 2009 and an opening night scheduled for Thursday, April 2, 2009.  Casting announcements will be forthcoming.
 
reasons to be pretty confronts America's obsession with physical beauty headlong.  In Neil LaBute's new play, Greg's 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.  But that's just the beginning.
 
This play marks the sixth collaboration between MCC Theater and LaBute, who is MCC's Resident Playwright.  reasons to be pretty puts a final, ferocious cap on a trilogy of plays that began with The Shape of Things and Fat Pig.  Performances of the four-character play began Off Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on May 14, 2008 and the critically acclaimed production continued through July 5, 2008.
 
Scenic Design is by David Gallo, Costume Design is by Sarah J. Holden, Lighting Design is by David Weiner, Music & Sound Design is by Rob Milburn & Michael Bodeen and Fight Direction is by Manny Siverio.

"reasons to be pretty" is produced on Broadway by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Steve Traxler, Hal Thau, Ted Snowdon and Doug Nevin/Erica Lynn Schwartz in association with MCC Theater.

"reasons to be pretty," about a group of friends thrown into turmoil by one member's comments about a female co-worker, played Off-Broadway earlier this year at the Lucille Lortel Theater.

That production starred Piper Perabo, Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski and Pablo Schreiber; a cast for the Broadway transfer has not been announced.

"America's obsession with physical beauty is confronted headlong in this brutal and exhilarating new play.  In reasons to be pretty, 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.  But that's just the beginning.  Greg's best buddy Kent, and Kent's wife Carly also enter into the picture and the emotional equation becomes exponentially more complicated.  As their relationship crumbles, their friends are pulled into the fray and all are forced to confront a sea of deceit, infidelity and betrayed trust in their journey to answer that oh-so-American question: How much is pretty worth?" described press notes

Story centers on a man (Sadoski) whose casual comment about a co-worker's attractiveness wreaks havoc in his personal life.

LaBute's other plays include "The Shape of Things," "Fat Pig" and "Bash: Latter-Day Plays." LaBute is resident playwright at MCC, which has staged six of his plays. The playwright considers "Reasons" to be the final seg in a thematically linked trilogy that also includes "Shape of Things" and "Fat Pig"

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna