reasons to be pretty Reviews- Page 3
reasons to be pretty Reviews
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re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#50
Posted: 4/2/09 at 10:20pm
Brantley's summary is up and it seems very positive:
"Neil LaBute's "reasons to be pretty," which opened at the Lyceum Theater in a wonderfully acted production directed by Terry Kinney, may turn out to be the sentimental sleeper of the season. Making his Broadway debut with a revised (and much improved) version of a play seen off Broadway last year, Mr. LaBute has exchanged misanthropy for empathy, reaping unexpected dividends. Oh, sure, the characters in this belated coming-of-age story embrace the nastier forms of self-expression long associated with Mr. LaBute's writing. This isn't just another dark-hued portrait of people who use people, though. I suppose that in the wrong hands "reasons to be pretty" could sound like a Sunday school lesson, albeit one with a most unchurchly vocabulary. But Mr. Kinney's production never smacks of the pulpit. Even more than when I saw it last June, "reasons" flows with the compelling naturalness of overheard conversation."
Updated On: 4/2/09 at 10:20 PM
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#51
Posted: 4/2/09 at 10:22pm
The New York Times is a Rave:
"...Mr. Sadoski?s performance is the ideal conduit for this vicarious experience. He has an open, impressionable face and a measured voice that register shades of feeling and recognition with a fluid clarity. His Greg is funny, a natural if insecure clown, but, more important, he is that most elusive of theatrical phenomena ? an ordinary, decent man who rivets your attention.
As Greg?s far-from-decent counterpart, Mr. Pasquale embodies the more classic LaBute antihero with a furtive ease that sometimes eluded Mr. Schreiber. Ms. Perabo, known mostly as a film actress, has blossomed affectingly in her role, summoning the shaky confidence of a born beauty who is scared that all she has to offer is her looks.
Ms. Ireland is less a powerhouse of rage than Ms. Pill was, and this turns out to work to the play?s advantage. Steph seems vulnerable in a way she didn?t before. You understand the protectiveness as well as the exasperation she inspires in Greg; ?reasons? is a real love story now, and its final scene is a gentle heartbreaker."
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/theater/reviews/03reas.html
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#52
Posted: 4/2/09 at 10:25pmVery happy to see all the positive notices. It's not a great play, but it's a very good one, and I hope all the praise for Sadoski means means we'll see his name a lot come awards season.
"Hey little girls, look at all the men in shiny shirts and no wives!" - Jackie Hoffman, Xanadu, 19 Feb 2008
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#53
Posted: 4/2/09 at 10:30pm
don't know if this has been posted but AM new York gave it 2.5 starts out 4
the review is sort of lacking, but heres the link
AM NY
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#54
Posted: 4/2/09 at 10:37pm
Entertainment Weekly gives the show a B-:
" An unsympathetic heroine saps the energy right out of rtbp, which marks the prolific playwright's Broadway debut and his third meditation on body image/beauty obsession (see also: 2001's The Shape of Things, later filmed with original stars Rachel Weisz and Paul Rudd; and 2004's Fat Pig, starring a mercury-free Jeremy Piven). A hit in its downtown premiere last summer, rtbp has since received a substantial makeover: Ireland stepped in for Alison Pill, late of Milk and HBO's In Treatment, as the plain-faced heroine; Rescue Me star Stephen Pasquale now plays alpha-male Kent, who's not pleased about the ever-expanding ass of his pregnant model-gorgeous wife Carly (Piper Perabo). Also, LaBute wisely cut the characters' awkward direct-address monologues. (Greg's concluding speech actually began with the words 'What'd I learn from this?' If he didn't know after 2 hours and 20 minutes, LaBute sure didn't do his job.)
But in his tinkering, LaBute also completely excised all of Steph's likeability. Her speech engendered sympathy. 'Don't I wanna be with someone who finds me beautiful?' Steph asked in rtbp's earlier version. 'I don't have that much going for me, not really. Not all educated and smart or anything, and not gorgeous, not like some girls ? but I like what I've got and I'm gonna protect that... I mean, wouldn't you?'"
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20269797,00.html
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#55
Posted: 4/2/09 at 10:51pmAgain, Ben loved it once. Why would he hate it now?
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#56
Posted: 4/2/09 at 10:51pm
John Simon is Very Positive:
"The two holdovers are Thomas Sadoski, whose Greg is appropriately at the crossroads between laissez-faire nerdiness and intellectual ambition; and Piper Perabo, whose Carly, though as staunch as she is pretty, is not free from vulnerability as her suspicions justifiably increase.
New are Marin Ireland, whose acting is as apt as was Alison Pill?s, although not as good at winning audience sympathy; and Steven Pasquale, whose Kent is both more charismatic and more amusing than that of Pablo Schreiber, his predecessor."
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601098&sid=amF9uI1tauvk&refer=movie
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#57
Posted: 4/2/09 at 11:26pm
I'm so glad it's getting raves! I saw it on Tuesday and I loved it. I thought the acting was really top-notch. Piper was a litte.....out there? She was a little too "big" almost, but it kind-of, sort-of worked for me. It didn't bother me is what I mean. I thought the overall show was very well done, and so well written. I really want to get a copy of the printed script so I can read the monologues. I remember someone saying that they kept in the monologue at the end, but it was cut when I saw it, which makes sense. It wouldn't make much theatrical sense for a character to just suddenly turn to the audience and deliver a monologue. I thought the guys were the best. They really stood out, and their scene together in Act II was so great even if the fighting was a little "unrealistic." I really enjoyed the main girl (sorry, I forgot her character name and her real name), but I thought her voice could have been stronger. Her voice just sounded weak when compared to everyone else. Maybe she was tired from the screaming, but it just didn't carry much weight.
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#58
Posted: 4/2/09 at 11:35pmSeems to me the heat is on between reasons and Irena for Best Play. Also, is this eligible for the Pulitzer? Just curious.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#59
Posted: 4/3/09 at 12:06am
It's going to be between REASONS and CARNAGE for Best Play this year.
REASONS deserves it and I hope it wins.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#60
Posted: 4/3/09 at 12:54am
Talkin' Broadway is mixed but positive about the cast:
"No one familiar with the work of Neil LaBute will be surprised at hearing that his transferred-to-Broadway reasons to be pretty, now at the Lyceum Theatre, begins with a twentysomething man and woman going at it hammer and tongs in a series of he-versus-she recriminations. But despite the inclusion of the sort of starkly incisive and abusive talk of the sort at which LaBute excels, the play -- which has been somewhat trimmed for its uptown incarnation -- still registers as a "here-we-go-again" enterprise.
Fortunately, its flaws are partially redeemed by its four-person cast: Thomas Sadoski, who has deepened his already probing performance as factory worker Greg, the intensely gifted Marin Ireland, who deserves to be kissed by the producers on the hem of her late-in-play asymmetrical skirt for immersing herself in the role of Greg's aggrieved girlfriend Steph, and Piper Perabo (the show's other holdover) and Steven Pasquale as married co-workers Carly and Kent, who also warrant kudos for their committed performances under Terry Kinney's acidly biting direction.
..."
Full Review
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#61
Posted: 4/3/09 at 1:10amAgreed. I think "reasons..." is the "meatier" of the two. I think it should win, but I'm totally partial. I love me some LaBute.
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#62
Posted: 4/3/09 at 1:20am
Maybe I'll need to see it again. Like I said, I really love the play itself. But something about the production was missing for me. Then again, work has been done and I only saw the third preview. In the midst of these raves, I can't help but think it's worth another shot.
Well, congrats to the cast!
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#63
Posted: 4/3/09 at 3:08am
Personally, I'm torn between REASONS and CARNAGE. I loved both.
CARNAGE was the best theatrical experience of the season for me, but while I like the script a whole lot, that was likely due more to the performances than anything else -- they made GoC fascinating to watch for every second of its duration.
REASONS is a better-written, more incisive work, and more affecting on an emotional level. Also, CARNAGE is a guaranteed financial success whether it wins the Tony or not, while REASONS will likely need a boatload of attention to even survive.
It's a tough call: do you give the award to the best production / theatrical experience, or the best play, in terms of writing? I'd be happy to see either win, but I wonder who I'd vote for were I eligible...
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#64
Posted: 4/3/09 at 4:09amff
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/1/06
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#65
Posted: 4/3/09 at 7:53am
Wait... They cut the monologues? Those were the only parts of the play that I actually liked a lot. Take this off my re-see to give the benefit of the doubt list. 
LIVE THAT LESSON!!!!!!
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#66
Posted: 4/3/09 at 10:25amI think it works fine w/o the monologues. I'm not sure exactly what each monologue discussed or gave insight to, but it flowed fine. The only problem I had was the Act 1 closer. It didn't really end on any sort of "what's going to happen" next type moment. And, the play does wander from the topic of him calling his girlfriend "regular" to another story line that I'm not sure I see the correlation to it and the overall theme of the show, but maybe I do.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#67
Posted: 4/3/09 at 10:48am
The New York Post is mixed with two out of four stars:
"NEIL LaBute is often referred to as the bad boy of Ameri can theater, a fear less explorer of man's dark side.
Please! Underneath the profanity, hot-button issues and general hostility lurks a fairly conventional treatment of well-trodden themes. LaBute's plays would rock only the tipsiest boat -- which says more about American theater than it does about him.
When "reasons to be pretty" opened downtown last summer, also under Terry Kinney's direction, it was hailed as an evolution toward a certain maturity, while maintaining some of the sharp angles that made the playwright famous.
A series of rewrites and a cast change later, these asperities have been smoothed out. The play now borders on the benign.
..."
Full Review
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#68
Posted: 4/3/09 at 10:55am
RAVE
A.P.
Variety
Talkin' Broadway
Hollywood Reporter
The New York TImes
VERY POSITIVE
Bergen Record
Word of Mouth
USA Today
John Simon (bloomberg.com)
MIXED-TO-POSITIVE
Backstage
Entertainment Weekly
Talkin' Broadway
MIXED
The New York Post
VERY NEGATIVE
Wall Street Journal
Updated On: 4/3/09 at 10:55 AM
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#69
Posted: 4/3/09 at 1:27pm
The act one closer was originally Steven Pasquale's monologue and it ended the act very well. Mostly because everything that came out of his mouth confirmed that, not only was he a supreme ass, but that how he acted in front of everyone was really how he was. And it was a good closer because everything he said was kinda shocking in the sense that no real person could possibly spout such B.S. and mean it.
re: reasons to be pretty Reviews#70
Posted: 4/7/09 at 10:38pm
Just got back, and absolutely loved it !!!! The 2nd act dragged just a tad bit, but it didnt take away the power of the story, and its message.
The acting was phenomenal !!! Heard so much about Sadoski, but Ireland was absolutely incredible !!!
Would love to go back and see it again...!
Btw, all monologues are gone.
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