Marshall-Green and Perabo Join Cast of 'Shape' Reading

MCC Theater (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, Artistic Directors; William Cantler, Associate Artistic Director; Blake West, Executive Director)  announced that Logan Marshall-Green and Piper Perabo (current star of MCC's production of reasons to be pretty) will join the cast of tonight's special reading of Neil LaBute's The Shape of Things at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street).

These two readings of plays by Neil LaBute exploring America's obsession with physical beauty highlights the current LaBute play Off-Broadway.  MCC's current production of LaBute's bristling new comic drama reasons to be pretty puts a final, ferocious cap on a trilogy of plays that began with The Shape of Things and Fat Pig (which MCC also premiered).  The series brings together many of the original artists from the first two plays in the trilogy in support of the critically-acclaimed reasons to be pretty, which marks the sixth collaboration between MCC Theater and LaBute, MCC's Playwright-in-Residence.

Mr. Marshall-Green and Ms. Perabo complete a cast that includes Anna Camp (The Country Girl, The Scene) and Austin Lysy (Hitch, A Midsummer Night's Dream).  Acclaimed director Carolyn Cantor, who last worked with Neil LaBute on MCC Theater's 2007 production of In a Dark Dark House, will direct. Logan Marshall-Green replaces Paul Rudd who, due to a last-minute schedule change, will not be available to perform in the reading.

This special one-night-only reading of The Shape of Things is performed tonight, Monday, June 23 at 7:00 p.m. at the Lortel, where reasons to be pretty is currently playing to sold-out audiences.  As previously announced, reasons to be pretty will transfer to Broadway later this season.

A limited number of tickets for The Shape of Things are still available and can be purchased at the Lucille Lortel box office, by visiting www.mcctheater.org or through www.ticketcentral.com or by calling (212) 279-4200.

 
Fat Pig
Cow.  Slob.  Pig.  How many insults can you hear before you stand up and defend the woman you love?  Tom faces just that question when he falls for Helen, a bright, funny, sexy young woman who also happens to be plus-sized.  Forced to explain his new relationship to his friends who think that size does matter, Tom faces a tough choice in LaBute's "most emotionally engaging and unsettling play." –The New York Times

The Shape of Things
In a modern version of Adam's seduction by Eve, The Shape of Things pits gentle, awkward, overweight Adam against worldly, analytical, amoral Evelyn, a graduate student in art.  After a chance meeting at a museum, they embark on an intense relationship that causes shy and principled Adam to go to extraordinary lengths, including cosmetic surgery, and a betrayal of his best friend, to improve his appearance and "character."  In the process, Evelyn's subtle and insistent coaching results in a reconstruction of Adam's fundamental moral being and leads to a shattering conclusion.

reasons to be pretty
America's obsession with physical beauty is confronted headlong in this brutal and exhilarating 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.  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?  Terry Kinney directs the four-person cast of Piper Perabo, Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski and Pablo Schreiber.  Individual tickets for reasons to be pretty are $59 and are now available through www.ticketcentral.com or by calling (212) 279-4200.

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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