#1
Posted: 6/21/08 at 8:18pm
"Regular" is the insult of choice in "reasons to be pretty" the superb new Neil LaBute play that will soon elevate him to Broadway from his humble home at the Lortel.
"reasons to be pretty" is anything but regular - if it were a "regular" LaBute, I would throw it in a pile that contains In a Dark Dark House, Some Girl(s), Wrecks, and a few others. No, "reasons" is up there with his best - perhaps it is his best to date.
As I predicted Laura Benanti and Boyd Ganes for the win last July, months before GYPSY was even planned for Broadway, I will now proudly predict Alison Pill to win the "Featured Actress in a Play" Tony. Her delivery of the "here's what's wrong with you" monologue at a local mall in the middle of the first act is brilliant in its simplicty and tone.
Thomas Sadoski (who bears a striking resemblance to Steve Buscemi) is LaBute's first leading man who actually "grows," by the end of the play, and Sadoski displays the conflict of developing from man-child to plain man very well. The final scene between him and Pill, with all emotions on display, her possible desire to not move on, is devestating.
Piper Perabo and Pablo Schreiber provide solid back up. Schreiber is LaBute's typical male - a sexist, dimwitted guy prone to violence. Perabo was a bit bizarre, though it could be that her character is a dimwit, as well. But a well meaning dimwit, as opposed to Schreiber's.
Terry Kinney directed the hell out of LaBute's script, and even made the monologues, which here do serve as expositional shorthand, seem necessary.
Congratulations, Neil. You've finally got your groove back.
"reasons to be pretty" is anything but regular - if it were a "regular" LaBute, I would throw it in a pile that contains In a Dark Dark House, Some Girl(s), Wrecks, and a few others. No, "reasons" is up there with his best - perhaps it is his best to date.
As I predicted Laura Benanti and Boyd Ganes for the win last July, months before GYPSY was even planned for Broadway, I will now proudly predict Alison Pill to win the "Featured Actress in a Play" Tony. Her delivery of the "here's what's wrong with you" monologue at a local mall in the middle of the first act is brilliant in its simplicty and tone.
Thomas Sadoski (who bears a striking resemblance to Steve Buscemi) is LaBute's first leading man who actually "grows," by the end of the play, and Sadoski displays the conflict of developing from man-child to plain man very well. The final scene between him and Pill, with all emotions on display, her possible desire to not move on, is devestating.
Piper Perabo and Pablo Schreiber provide solid back up. Schreiber is LaBute's typical male - a sexist, dimwitted guy prone to violence. Perabo was a bit bizarre, though it could be that her character is a dimwit, as well. But a well meaning dimwit, as opposed to Schreiber's.
Terry Kinney directed the hell out of LaBute's script, and even made the monologues, which here do serve as expositional shorthand, seem necessary.
Congratulations, Neil. You've finally got your groove back.
