Review Roundup: REASONS TO BE HAPPY Opens Off-Broadway - All the Reviews!

MCC Theater's Reasons to be Happy, starring Leslie Bibb (Iron Man, ABC's "GCB") and Jenna Fischer (NBC's "The Office") making their New York City stage debuts opposite Josh Hamilton (The Coast of Utopia) and Fred Weller (MCC's Still Life and In a Dark Dark House), is Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute's new play, which LaBute will also direct. The show opens tonight, June 11, at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and runs through June 23, 2013.

Reasons to be Happy is a companion piece to LaBute's critically-acclaimed award-winning play, Reasons to Be Pretty, first produced at MCC Theater in 2008 before moving to Broadway where it was nominated for three 2009 Tony Awards, including Best Play.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: The new play is called "Reasons to Be Happy." And it would seem that in addition to coming to terms with capital letters, Mr. LaBute is more relaxed as a playwright than he's ever been. He is clearly having a good time revisiting old friends. And, with Mr. LaBute directing a dynamite cast rounded out by Fred Weller and Leslie Bibb, you're likely to feel the same way...Every cast member shapes a thoroughly individual portrait of ambivalence, from Ms. Bibb's glowing openness to Ms. Fischer's hair-trigger combativeness (quite a contrast to her more passive Pam on "The Office"). The chemistry is so organic that you understand why their characters need to be together and as far away from one another as possible.

Jennifer Farrar, Associated Press: Actual happiness isn't especially prevalent in Neil Labute's new play, "Reasons To Be Happy." But then, LaBute can send his plots in surprising directions, so be prepared for an avalanche of emotions to tumble out onstage. LaBute directs his intense, funny and touching play...In following up with the lives of his earlier characters, LaBute presents another compassionate examination of the ways people struggle to connect and try to find happiness. Possibly even together. Or not. Maybe the next chapter can be called "Reasons to Be Confused."

Marilyn Stasio, Variety: Without being unkind or sentimental, LaBute delivers a painfully realistic group portrait of people who go directly from high school into jobs at the small plants and big box stores at the local mall (settings roughly outlined by Neil Patel) where they soon become locked into the rituals of local life...LaBute, who is directing his own baby here, does an even-handed job of giving each of these characters his/her moment under the bright lights that come courtesy of Ben Stanton.

Linda Winer, Newsday: In this new work, a sequel -- with different good actors and capital letters -- to his 2008 "reasons to be pretty," the play is a surprisingly straightforward and awfully mundane relationship drama about four working-class people with what-does-it-all-mean? crises...Understandably, LaBute appears to be working to escape his reputation for shock endings. Alas, the alternative, at this point, is pretty dull.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: Picking up the same fractious quartet a few years down the track, Reasons to Be Happy is an engrossing if less impactful companion piece that again tempers LaBute's sardonic side by allowing a glimmer of compassion for people who seem incapable of sustaining lasting connections. The play mirrors the structure of the earlier work a little too schematically...Directed by LaBute, this is a pithy production of a play that maintains involvement and generates some squirmy humor. But unlike the bristling first chapter that introduced these characters, it never yields a lot in the way of emotional rewards. To be honest, it's harder to care this time around about any of them, either as individuals or couples.

Melissa Rose Bernardo, Entertainment Weekly: If Jenna Fischer wanted to shed the good-girl image she acquired during nine seasons on NBC's The Office, a Neil LaBute play is a pretty great way. Steph - her hot-tempered, foul-mouthed, physically and abusive character in the oddly captivating Reasons to Be Happy - is worlds away from reserved receptionist Pam Halpert. If, however, Fischer wanted a dynamic, meaty role for her professional stage debut, she's about five years and one play too late...Happy stands on its own, of course; so if you didn't see Pretty, don't worry - LaBute gives us all the necessary background. I just wish he'd given us a credible female character or two as well. B

David Cote, Time Out NY: If Neil LaBute were to teach a course on playwriting, I bet his lesson plan would look something like this: "Week 1: Dumbing down characters to pad out dialogue and pump up conflict." "Week 2: "Stringing together two-person scenes, no matter how monotonous it gets." "Week 3: Embracing flat, shallow protagonists whose poor life choices are both predictable and banal." And finally, "Week 12: Blasting tracks by Nirvana during changes to simulate tension and edginess." Luckily, there is no Professor LaBute, so we're not overrun with relationship clunkers such as Reasons to Be Happy.

Matt Windman, AM New York: "Reasons to Be Happy" shares many of the qualities of "Reasons to Be Pretty," which remains LaBute's most mature (and least misogynistic) work to date. But its contemplative dialogue is often overwritten and meandering. Since this is the play's world premiere, it's not too late for LaBute to make edits. As directed by LaBute himself, the cast imbues the play with a blunt, hot intensity that makes its issues all the more compelling. It is rather startling to see Fischer, who is best known as the likable Pam Beesley on "The Office," verbally attack Hamilton, who perfectly conveys Greg's con flicted and burdened personality.

Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News: Presumably the author's intent is to show the blue-collar characters' small lives, but the lines sound false and toll with condescension. No reasons to be happy about that.

Philip Boroff, Bloomberg: LaBute, who's also a film director and screenwriter, has an ear for zany talk that often meshes expletives and self-help mumbo jumbo. The four characters are all sympathetic but the anti-intellectualism of Greg's circle is over the top.

Jesse Oxfeld, NY Observer: In Reasons to Be Happy, which opened last night in an MCC production at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, we get a glimpse of their maybe-possibly-happily ever after. These same four characters aren't really happy, and, as directed by Mr. LaBute, this is a quieter play than its predecessor. But it's a sharp, melancholy, crisply acted look at the roadblocks we put in the way of our fulfillment.

Robert Feldberg, NorthJersy.com: "Reasons to Be Happy" has its improbabilities and rough edges, but what ultimately emerges is a winning sympathy for the difficulties of life and love.

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