Does Reasons To Be Pretty have an identity chrisis?
Does Reasons To Be Pretty have an identity chrisis?
winston89
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/18/06
#1Does Reasons To Be Pretty have an identity chrisis?
Posted: 6/1/09 at 10:26am
That is the question that I have been asking for awhile. It seems that the ads for this show have been changing left and right. They first advertised it as a show that is about how we look at looks in our culture and the title of the show was all in lower case on the marquee and then on the ads. The website for this show is does this play make me look fat.com
They then changed the ads to have the title written with the first letter of every word in caps and then added a new comedy below it.
Having seen the play twice I never once thought that it was about looks. If I had to discribe it to someone I would talk about how it it's about language and how saying the wrong thing could have a snow ball effect.
Am I the the only one who feels this way? That the producers relly had know clue on how to advertise this thing in an effective way?
"If you try to shag my husband while I am still alive, I will shove the art of motorcycle maintenance up your rancid little Cu**. That's a good dear"
Tom Stoppard's Rock N Roll
RippedMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/05
#2re: Does Reasons To Be Pretty have an identity chrisis?
Posted: 6/1/09 at 7:00pmI think they were just trying to go the edgy route and it back fired.
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#2re: Does Reasons To Be Pretty have an identity chrisis?
Posted: 6/1/09 at 7:38pm
For some reason, the marketing team for the Broadway production decided to use real people. Real overweight people. Everyone may be beautiful in his or her own way, but nothing turns people off more than looking at fat naked people.
The marketing at the Lortel was a simple, dignified cartoon: 
I give the marketing team credit for trying to figure out an out of the ordinary way to sell the show, but what they did was just unappealing.
winston89
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/18/06
#3re: Does Reasons To Be Pretty have an identity chrisis?
Posted: 6/1/09 at 11:59pm
Yankeefan, I do agree that the ads for the show downtown were better done and that they were trying to go for a more edgier approach to selling the show.
I just don't think that what they did to begin with was working and I don't think that re billing it as a new comedy worked due to the fact that I feel that may be too little too late.
I guess I could understand them billing it as a new comedy but I don't understand why they went form spelling out the show title in all lower case to then having all the first letters in each word be in caps. From what I understand LaBute wanted it written with everything in lower case intentionally for artistic reasons.
"If you try to shag my husband while I am still alive, I will shove the art of motorcycle maintenance up your rancid little Cu**. That's a good dear"
Tom Stoppard's Rock N Roll
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#4re: Does Reasons To Be Pretty have an identity chrisis?
Posted: 6/2/09 at 8:10amLaBute writes everything in lower case because it's easier to type.
winston89
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/18/06
#6re: Does Reasons To Be Pretty have an identity chrisis?
Posted: 6/2/09 at 9:09amhouselightsout, Yep its true. That is now how they are billing the play. As a new comedy.
"If you try to shag my husband while I am still alive, I will shove the art of motorcycle maintenance up your rancid little Cu**. That's a good dear"
Tom Stoppard's Rock N Roll
wonkit
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/30/08
#7re: Does Reasons To Be Pretty have an identity chrisis?
Posted: 6/2/09 at 9:37amI think the title itself creates a problem. I eventually bought a ticket, saw the show, liked the acting, but first checked out Exit the King, Mary Stuart, God of Carnage, even 33 Variations - all of which were equally unknown to me.
winston89
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/18/06
#8re: Does Reasons To Be Pretty have an identity chrisis?
Posted: 6/2/09 at 10:15am
How does the title create a problem to you? It does create one to me and that is because I think that with a title like that it gives off the impression about how this play is going to be about looks and why people should look a particular way. Hell, that was what they were trying to advertise it as originally and that didn't work. I didn't think that it worked because the play is about so much more then how people look.
If a friend who was interested in seeing it but wanted to know what it was about asked me, I would tell them that it is about how saying the wrong thing can damage a social circle. Not, that this is a play that analyzes how people are so dependent on looks. But, that is just me.
"If you try to shag my husband while I am still alive, I will shove the art of motorcycle maintenance up your rancid little Cu**. That's a good dear"
Tom Stoppard's Rock N Roll
wonkit
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/30/08
#9re: Does Reasons To Be Pretty have an identity chrisis?
Posted: 6/2/09 at 7:12pm
You have answered your own question. LaBute has taken one relatively trivial aspect of the plot and made it into the equivalent of the trailer for the entire play. The title is both misleading and ineffective. He might be better served by pulling a Mamet and calling it something interesting but not representative.
And there is no "h" in crisis.
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