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Do you know why you look in the mirror every morning or compare your outfit to all those movie stars in the gossip magazines? Well neither do we, but at least there's finally someone dealing with all our beauty obsessions coming to Broadway this spring is the comedic take on one man's struggle in dealing with inner beauty versus outer beauty in reasons to be pretty. Originally an Off-Broadway shoot, the four person play recently cast Marin Ireland and Steven Pasquale to complete the cast before they begin previews at Broadway's Lyceum Theatre in March. Want to discover your own tack on the topic? Head on over to Broadway's biggest ticket distributor online to find all the best answers to those life questions with reasons to be pretty tickets.
Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly) and Thomas Sadoski (Reckless) comprised the Off Broadway production at the Lucille Lortel Theater which "confronts America's obsession with physical beauty headlong," according to press notes. The comic drama is full of Neil LeBute, the man who is behind other dramatically devilicous plays like Bash, The Mercy Seat and screenplays In the Company of Men, Your Friends and Neighbors and Nurse Betty. The ear-splitting yelling and mercy following are dramatically portrayed by the four middle-class friends and lovers who feel like they're in a never ending cycle of misery. LaBute material is known to be brutal and pessimistic, but the dramatic attacks that certain men receive in this Broadway play really make you listen.
This isn't the first LaBute physically obsessive composition but rather the final in a trilogy which began with "Shape of Things" and followed with "Fat Pig." Though patriotically dramatic, the storyline has an un
derstandability context that allows audiences to relate to the insecurities and emotions of each character, through their adventures in a mall's food court to confidence bashers. In press notes the play is described as: "In reasons to be pretty, 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 Steph's lack thereof) get back to said girlfriend. But that's just the beginning. 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?"
The play gained loads of critical acclaim when it appeared at MMC, hearing critics say "prepare to be bruised and fascinated," (Associated Press) and "The guys who have made their way out of Mr. LaBute's imagination onto the page, then onto the stage or screen, have not tended to be the sort that another guy would want his sister or daughter to end up with" (New York Sun).
The play's Broadway (and LaBut's) debut was in part due to producers Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and Steve Traxler, along with MCC. Along with most of the original cast, the company's Off-Broadway director Terry Kinney will follow. Mounting on Broadway is set to be done by scenic designer David Gallo, with costume design by Sarah J. Holden, lighting design by David Weiner, music and sound by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen and fight direction by Manny Siverio.
LaBute has seen six works produced with MCC as resident playwright, including The Mercy Seat, The Distance from Here, Fat Pig, Some Girl(s) and In a Dark Dark House.
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