Review - reasons to be pretty & Len, Asleep In Vinyl

There's a moment in Show Boat where a woman sings that her true love, "just plain Bill," is "an ordinary man" who "isn't half as handsome as dozens of men" and is, on the whole, kinda stupid. This is considered by many to be one of the most romantic love songs of the 20th Century. In Neil LaBute's new reasons to be pretty the main character, reacting to his buddy's ravings about how hot another woman is, says that his girlfriend of four years may be "regular" looking, but he wouldn't trade her for a million bucks. This will not be considered one of the most romantic sentiments of the 21st Century.

LaBute gives us no reason to believe that Greg (Thomas Sadoski), who works the night shift loading boxes in a warehouse and spends his 3am lunch breaks reading classic literature, is anything but a good guy who cares very much for Steph (Alison Pill) and would never do anything to intentionally hurt her. But try telling that to his livid gf who is furious during the electrically charged scene that opens the play because Greg's co-worker Carly (Piper Perabo) has told her she overheard her bf saying she's ugly.

Of course, to Carly, who may complain that it's hard being pretty but is happy not to suffer the alternative, "regular" might just as well mean "ugly." Though costume designer Sarah J. Holden covers up her figure in the unflattering security guard uniform she wears at work, we get the impression from her husband, Greg's co-worker/buddy Kent (Pablo Schreiber), that she has an amazing ass. Her ass, in fact, seems to be the number one thing he likes about her. So much so that when her pregnancy causes her ass to grow a bit, he sneaks around with one that's more to his liking. (For those of you who were waiting for a typical Neil LaBute male character to enter the picture, Bingo!)

But Greg is the focus here (Sadoski is immensely likeable in the role) and while his attempt to patch things up with Steph is met with her attempt to publicly humiliate him, his sincerity about wanting her to be happy - whether it's with him or that great new guy she's dating - is touching. And while Pill's character is less developed, the actress gets across Steph's vulnerable need to know that she can survive in a world where she's usually going to be judged by her looks, particularly in her awkwardness running into Greg after their breakup when she's all dressed up for a first date.

In their supporting roles, Perabo is appealing humorous and perky while Schreiber makes the most of the author's insensitive lines that cause grownups in the audience to vocally react with disgust. Director Terry Kinney brings the play closer to the warm fuzzies than any LaBute piece has ever attempted, while still bathing it in a hard-edged, rhythmic production.

While reasons to be pretty may not have anything new to say about what determines physical attractiveness and why we may find that quality important, it's still an enjoyable riff on a subject that never gets old.

And no, I have no idea why the title is in all lower case letters.

Photo by Joan Marcus: Thomas Sadoski and Alison Pill

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Perhaps if I had spent my teen years listening to Chicago instead of listening to Chicago I might have gotten more out of Carly Mensch's drama of an aging rocker, Len, Asleep In Vinyl. Or maybe the problem is that it's just a thin piece that spends its intermissionless seventy minutes going nowhere.

Though record producer Len (Michael Cullen) has scored a mega success in developing pop songstess Zoe into a "sexy, but also a virgin" icon (Megan Ferguson plays the pill-popping, alcohol chugging, air-headed caricature) his heart belongs in the days when the grooves of vinyl LPs would make vibrations to sooth the soul and musical machismo was expressed by grabbing an expensive Fender guitar and smashing it to the ground.

Len recently walked out on an awards ceremony just after his name was announced as the winner for his work on Zoe's last album and she's tracked him down to the secluded cabin where he frequently goes to escape. (Wilson Chin does a terrific job with the unit set, mounting guitars on the walls like a hunter's trophies and lining one side with a mountain of LPs.) But first Len is visited by his son, Max (Daniel Eric Gold), who is trying to find his own musical voice with an orchestrally influenced band emoting lyrics inspired by "Jonathan Livingston Seagull."

While dad tends to wallow in grumpy solitude he's frequently visited by hero-worshipping teenager William (Dan McCabe), who considers him a "sonic guru."

There are minor clashes between father and son and star and creator, with the obligatory tease scene thrown in for good measure, and eventually Len's wife Isabelle (Leslie Lyles) enters the mix but director Jackson Gay and the perfectly fine cast have little of interest to work with. The playwright never grabs the Fender guitar and smashes it to the ground.

Photo by Joan Marcus: Daniel Eric Gold and Michael Cullen