MCC Theater's World Premiere of THE MONEY SHOT by Neil LaBute Begins Tonight

Elizabeth Reaser, Gia Crovatin, Golden Globe nominee Callie Thorne, and Frederick Weller star in the world premiere of MCC Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute's new play, The Money Shot, directed by Terry Kinney. Performances for The Money Shot begin at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC) tonight, September 4, 2014. An official opening is set for September 22, 2014 and it is currently scheduled through October 12, 2014.

In The Money Shot, Karen (Reaser) and Steve (Weller) are glamorous movie stars with one thing in common: desperation. It's been years since either one's had a hit, but the latest movie by a hot shot European director could change that. The night before filming a big scene (that seems destined to assure them a spot back on the pop culture radar), Karen, her partner Bev (Thorne), Steve, and his aspiring actress wife Missy (Crovatin) meet in order to make an important decision: how far will they let themselves go to keep from slipping further down the Hollywood food chain? The Money Shot reunites Neil LaBute with director Terry Kinney (Reasons to be Pretty) for a hilarious and insightful comedy about ambition, art, status and sex in an era - and an industry - where very little is sacred and almost nothing is taboo.

The cast features: screen and stage star Elizabeth Reaser; Gia Crovatin, of Showtime's "Californication" and LA Theatreworks' productions of LaBute's Reasons to Be Pretty and Reasons to Be Happy; stage and screen actress Callie Thorne, a 2012 Golden Globe nominee for her work on the USA series "Necessary Roughness"; and Fred Weller, most recently on Broadway opposite Tyne Daly in the Tony nominated Mothers and Sons and last seen at MCC in LaBute's Reasons to Be Happy, for which he was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award.

Prolific playwright and filmmaker Neil LaBute is the author of the renowned plays The Shape of Things, Fat Pig, Reasons to Be Happy, and Reasons to Be Pretty, the latter of which served as his Broadway debut in 2009, for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play. On stage, he previously directed his plays The Mercy Seat, Wrecks, and The Shape of Things. For film, LaBute wrote and directed the Cannes Palme d'Or finalist Nurse Betty, Your Friends & Neighbors, The Shape of Things, and In the Company of Men, for which he won the Independent Spirit Award and New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best First Feature. He also directed the hit dark comedy Death at a Funeral. LaBute is currently the Playwright-in-Residence at MCC Theater.

Director Terry Kinney is a co-founder of Steppenwolf Theatre Company. His directing credits there include The Violet Hour, A Streetcar Named Desire, A Clockwork Orange, Of Mice and Men, and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, which moved to Broadway and won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. NYC directing credits include the world premiere of Checkers by Doug McGrath, reasons to be pretty for MCC and Broadway, After Ashley and Beautiful Child at the Vineyard Theatre, among others. Upcoming projects include Sins of the Mother by Israel Horowitz, and Rear Window, adapted by Keith Reddin. Mr. Kinney's film directing credits include the short film Kubuku Rides (This Is It) for Steppenwolf Films, and Diminished Capacity with Matthew Broderick and Alan Alda. Film appearances include Save the Last Dance, Sleepers, Fly Away Home, Last of the Mohicans, The Firm, Devil in a Blue Dress, and Turn The River. TV credits include Tim McManus in HBO's prison drama Oz, The Mentalist, The Unusuals (ABC), The Laramie Project, thirtysomething, Kidnapped, Black Box, George Wallace, and The Good Wife with Julianna Margulies.

MCC Theater - founded in 1986 as Manhattan Class Company - is driven by a mission to provoke conversations that have never happened and otherwise never would. Led by Artistic Directors Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, and Executive Director Blake West, MCC fulfills its mission by producing new work that challenges artists and rewards audiences, and by nurturing the development of playwrights and students through a variety of literary and education programs that enable nearly 1,200 New York City high school students to find - and use - their own unique voice each year through the creation and performance of original theater pieces. MCC currently produces its annual season at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street) and will open its own two-theater complex on West 52nd Street and 10th Avenue in 2017. Notable productions include the recent hits Hand to God and Small Engine Repair; The Village Bike; The Other Place; Really Really; The Submission, winner of the inaugural Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award for new American plays; The Pride; Fifty Words; Nixon's Nixon; The Grey Zone; the Tony Award-winning Frozen; the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit; the re-imagined production of the musical Carrie; and eight plays by Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute, including Fat Pig, Reasons to Be Pretty and Reasons to Be Happy.