After first premiering to great acclaim at Off-Broadway's MCC Theater in 2003, Neil LaBute's Fat Pig is being fattened up just a little bit more for its 2011 Broadway debut.
The playwright himself prepared to carve it up via his directorial debut on the Great White Way. Comedian Dane Cook and stage and movie actor Josh Hamilton are slated to star, although neither theatre nor dates have been confirmed.
According to David Ng of The Los Angeles Times:
LaBute's plays are famous for their controversial and blunt-force subject matter, as well as their high density of swear words. Fat Pig tells the story of Helen, an obese woman who gets into a romantic relationship with Tom, a slender thirtysomething man. Causing trouble is Tom's obnoxious friend Carter, who antagonizes Helen about her weight. Cook will play Carter while actor Josh Hamilton will take on Tom. The actress playing Helen will be announced at a later date.
While I haven't yet seen a production of Fat Pig, I was a huge fan of LaBute's devastating play The Shape Of Things and I truly admired reasons to be pretty. So count me among the intrigued, including on whether this casting can turn the production into a cash cow.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.
Labels: Broadway, Dane Cook, Fat Pig, First Word On New Show, Josh Hamilton, Neil LaBute, Play, Reasons To Be Pretty, The Shape Of Things
Reasons To CloseIt took less than 24 hours after going home empty-handed at Sunday's Tony Awards, but
Neil LaBute's Tony-nominated
reasons to be pretty posted its closing notice on Monday. The play, which was produced earlier by Off-Broadway's MCC, will shutter Sunday after just 85 performances on Broadway.
I rather liked this little play and am sorry to see it go.
Terry Kinney offered taut direction to
Thomas Sadoski,
Marin Ireland,
Steven Pasquale and
Piper Perabo, who were all first rate.
But
reasons to be pretty never really caught on with Great White Way audiences as it hovered around the 50% capacity mark. In a week when its Tony nomination should have mattered with the public, its capacity actually dropped last week to just 47.4%.
While an award could have helped it attract more theatregoers, producers pulled the plug
seeming to feel that with a lack of major names, it was lost in the flurry of openings this spring.
That alone give me more than enough reasons to be a little sad.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Broadway, Closing Notices, Marin Ireland, Neil LaBute, Piper Perabo, Play, Reasons To Be Pretty, Steven Pasquale, Terry Kinney, Thomas Sadoski
reasons to be pretty (The SOB Review) – Lyceum Theatre, New York, New York
*** (out of ****)There are plenty of reasons to like
Neil LaBute’s surprisingly endearing
reasons to be pretty, but the biggest is
Thomas Sadoski as the comedy’s protagonist Greg, a lunkhead stuck in a dead-end job and a relationship going nowhere in a hurry.
Right before our eyes, Greg transforms from a juvenile jerk into a principled man.
But getting there is anything but pretty. I count myself among LaBute’s legion of fans, with his
The Shape Of Things ranking among my favorite plays of the past ten years. For other LaBute fans, if I were to describe his latest work -- expertly directed by
Terry Kinney -- as a
Shape Of Things flipped inside out, I think you’d get my meaning.
That earlier work lulls you into thinking that the central, seemingly beautiful relationship is founded on trust, but ultimately gets upended with a startling revelation. There's no lulling about in
reasons to be pretty, where the honesty that alternately seems too much or completely lacking in Greg's relationship with Steph (a marvelous
Marin Ireland) is actually right down the middle all along. Although, quite frankly, it’s hard to believe anyone could possibly find Steph as anything close to ugly, unless you get a huge heaping load of ugliness spewing from her acid tongue.
reasons to be pretty epitomizes a coming of age story for a new generation, even if its hero is a little late to life’s game of standing up for what's right. It’s that courage of conviction and taut cast that makes
reasons to be pretty so compelling.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Marin Ireland, Neil LaBute, Play, Reasons To Be Pretty, Terry Kinney, The Shape Of Things, The SOB Review, Thomas Sadoski
Does This Make Me Look Fat?Maybe there's hope for me yet as the upcoming production of
Neil LaBute's
reasons to be pretty is looking for average Joes and Josephines for
its ad campaign.
Sounds as inspired as if on the wings of a
Dove.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Ad Campaign, Broadway, Neil LaBute, Open Casting Call, Reasons To Be Pretty, Terry Kinney
LaBute's Play About La Beauts Broadway BoundAccording to
Variety,
MCC's Off-Broadway production of
Reasons To Be Pretty will transfer to Broadway early next year. This will mark the Great White Way debut for a work by playwright
Neil LaBute.
Under the direction of
Steppenwolf founder
Terry Kinney, the current castmembers
Piper Perabo,
Alison Pill,
Thomas Sadoski and
Pablo Schreiber will all be part of the Main Stem incarnation, which will be produced there by three of the individuals responsible for bringing
August: Osage County to New York:
Jerry Frankel,
Jeffrey Richards and
Steve Traxler.
The last time Kinney helmed a show on Broadway, it was the Tony-winning revival of Steppenwolf's
One Flew Over A Cuckoo's Nest back in 2001. More recently, he's directed the world premiere of
Richard Greenberg's
haunting post 9/11 play
The Well Appointed Room at Steppenwolf in 2006. That production starred
Kate Arrington,
Josh Charles and a couple actors you may have heard of recently named
Tracy Letts and
Amy Morton.
Anything Kinney directs, I'll be interested in seeing, and given it's Neil LaBute with a cast including Alison Pill? Are you kidding? I'll be there!
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Alison Pill, Broadway, First Word On New Show, Neil LaBute, Off-Broadway, One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, Play, Reasons To Be Pretty, Terry Kinney, Transfer
