ATW News Digest - 'reasons to be pretty' reviews

'reasons to be pretty' compels (ATW Review)

Not with a bang, but a puerile monologue (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Nice guys finish last. Fat girls finish laster. Nice fat guys finish lastest. So we learn from the Neil LaBute trilogy, starting with The Shape of Things, continuing with Fat Pig, and concluding with this MCC Theatre world premiere of reasons to be pretty. Amusing, insightful, and slimy - the LaBute usual - this newest installment charting the desperate and vile misunderstandings between the sexes is also disappointing, despite some terrific acting.

Review: reasons to be pretty (Bergen Record)

Judging from appearances (Star-Ledger)
Guys, ever wreck a nice relationship with a woman by making a stupid remark?

'Reasons To Be Pretty' (Hartford Courant)

Neil Labute's play explodes instantly with a fusillade of obscene invective that would make David Mamet blanch. The attacks come from the incensed Steph, filled with righteous fury by the excellent Alison Pill.

First impressions last in 'pretty' (New York Journal News)
"reasons to be pretty" demands to be seen. Neil LaBute continues to have an unsparing view of the human condition in which hell, as Sartre famously said, is other people.

Neil LaBute Finds Reasons To Be Nice (New York Sun)

It's pretty appealing (New York Post)
Neil LaBute continues to explore our obses sion with physical appearance and the way it wreaks havoc with personal relationships in "reasons to be pretty," the comic drama that opened last night. But unlike the provocative plays that preceded it - "Fat Pig," "The Shape of Things" - this one cuts thrillingly deep...

A 'Pretty' intense play (amNY)
Just as the Fringe Festival takes place in August and Richard Foreman's avant-garde spectacles start in January, the premiere of the latest Neil LaBute drama every June at the Lucille Lortel Theatre has become a new tradition in downtown theatergoing.

The good, bad & ugly, LaBute style (New York Daily News)

Beauty is more than skin deep, but you don't have to dig for the message of "reasons to be pretty," Neil LaBute's play having its world premiere at the Lucille Lortel.

Listen, You Brat, to Plain Truths About the Beauty Myth (New York Times)
Neil LaBute, the harsh and unforgiving chronicler of men’s darkest impulses, is making nice in his surprising new play.

Neil LaBute's Latest Provocation Whacks Ugly Girlfriend: Jeremy Gerard (Bloomberg.com)
We aren't privy to the conversation that sparked the events in Neil LaBute's latest stage provocation, but apparently it took place in a suburban garage and went something like this: ...

Review: reasons to be pretty (Variety)
Being made to feel uncomfortable or even repulsed by the behavior of men comes as no surprise in a Neil LaBute play, but being moved by his male characters is more unexpected. In "Fat Pig," the writer's ability to make his audience empathize with the protagonist's crippling cowardice yielded uncharacteristic emotional rewards. In "Reasons to Be Pretty," which completes a trilogy of four-character plays about the unhealthy obsession with physical beauty that began with The Shape of Things," the playwright once again softens his tendency toward cold, clinical assessment with a warming dose of compassion. The result is both absorbing and affecting.

reasons to be pretty reviewed by Leonard Jacobs (Back Stage)
While all the characters in Reasons stab each other in the back and heart, none of it surprises or enlightens. It's finally as if LaBute is admitting that his plays demonize women and this is his way of making amends.

LaBute examines the emotional price tag of pretty (Associated Press)

Review: reasons to be pretty (TheaterMania)
Neil LaBute's latest war-between-the-sexes play is well acted but comes off as a "here we go again" enterprise.

Review: reasons to be pretty (Talkin' Broadway)
The ability of certain words to crumble mountains or command armies is well documented. But leave it to Neil LaBute to prove that a soft, seven-letter adjective is all that's needed to turn a boy into a man. . . .

Review: 'reasons to be pretty' (CurtainUp)