ABOUT THE SHOW

reasons to be pretty confronts America’s obsession with physical beauty headlong. In this exhilarating new play, Greg’s (Sadoski) tight-knit social circle is thrown into turmoil when his off-handed remarks about a female co-worker’s pretty face (and his girlfriend’s lack thereof) get back to said girlfriend (Pill).  But that’s just the beginning.  Greg’s best buddy Kent, and Kent’s wife Carly (Perabo) also enter into the picture and the emotional equation becomes exponentially more complicated.  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?

Acclaimed playwright Neil LaBute made his Broadway debut with reasons to be pretty. It transfered from a sold out Off-Broadway run at MCC Theater – Lucille Lortel Theater, led by MCC Artistic Directors Bernard Telsey and Will Cantler, and Executive Director Robert LuPone. The critically acclaimed new playwas produced on Broadway by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and Steve Traxler, in association with MCC Theater. 

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Category: Play, Original, Broadway
Setting: The outlying suburbs. Not long ago.
1^st Preview Performance: March 13, 2009
Opening Night Performance: April 2, 2009
Final Performance: June 14, 2009
Total # of Performances: 85

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2009 Tony Award® Best Play (nominee)
2009 Tony Award^® Best Actor in a Play – Thomas Sadoski (nominee)
2009 Tony Award^® Best Featured Actress in a Play – Marin Ireland (nominee)
2009 Theatre World Award – Marine Ireland (winner)
2009 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Play (nominee)
2009 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actor in a Play – Thomas Sadoski (nominee)
2009 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Play – Terry Kinney (nominee)

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Opening Night Production Credits 

Understudies: Anne Bowles (Carly, Steph), Michael D. Dempsey (Greg, Kent)

Theatre Owned / Operated by The Shubert Organization (Phillip J. Smith: Chairman; Robert E. Wankel: President)

Produced by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Gary Goddard Entertainment, Ted Snowdon, Doug Nevin/Erica Lynn Schwartz, Ronald Frankel/Bat-Barry Productions, Kathleen Seidel, Kelpie Arts, Jam Theatricals, Rachel Helson/Heather Provost, and Scott M. Delman; Associate Producer: Adam Cunningham

World Premiere on June 2, 2008 at: MCC Theater (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, Artistic Directors; William Cantler, Associate Artistic Director; Blake West, Executive Director

Directed by Terry Kinney; Assistant Director: Ilana Becker

Scenic Design by David Gallo; Costume Design by Sarah J. Holden; Lighting Design by David Weiner; Music and Sound Design by: Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen; Associate Scenic Design: Steven C. Kemp; Associate Lighting Design: Lauren Phillips; Associate Sound Design: David Stollings; Assistant Costume Design: Maggie Lee-Burdorff

General Manager: Daniel Kuney; Company Manager: Christopher D’Angelo

Technical Supervisor: Hudson Theatrical Associates; Production Stage Manager: Christine Lemme; Stage Manager: Matthew Farrell

Casting: Telsey + Company; Fight direction by Manny Siverio; General Press Representative: O&M Co.; Advertising: SPOTCo, Inc.; Fight Captain: Michael D. Dempsey; Photographer: Robert J. Saferstein

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*CRITIC’S PICK* A surprising and superbly acted production with some of the most sensitively shaded performances in town. -The New York Times

This one cuts thrillingly deep - as thought-provoking as it is entertaining. -New York Post

Prepare to be bruised — and fascinated. reasons to be pretty has been given a galvanizing production, directed with assurance by Terry Kinney. A touching, adult story. -Associated Press

Absorbing, affecting, thoughtful and mature. There's an insightfulness and texture to the observations here that's always compelling. reasons to be pretty is among the prolific LaBute's most satisfying plays. –Variety

 
From its blazing opening to its graceful conclusion, reasons to be pretty ranks among Neil LaBute's sharpest studies in the contemporary war of the sexes. - Star-Ledger

Marin Ireland. New York credits include: Blasted (Soho Rep), Cyclone (Studio Dante, 2006 OBIE for Performance), The Beebo Brinker Chronicles (4th Street, 37 Arts), Bad Jazz (The Play Company), The Ruby Sunrise (Public Theater), The Harlequin Studies (Signature), The Triple Happiness (Second Stage), Manuscript (Daryl Roth), Fighting Words (Underwood), Savannah Bay (Classic Stage), Where We're Born (Rattlestick), the title role in Sabina (Primary Stages), Far Away and Nocturne (both at New York Theatre Workshop). Royal Court's American tour of Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis. Regional work includes Mauritius (Huntington Theatre, IRNE Award, Elliot Norton nomination), Heartbreak House (Goodman), The Bells (McCarter), Uncle Vanya (Lake Lucille), As You Like It (Commonwealth Shakespeare) and Richard Greenberg's new play The Injured Party (South Coast Rep). Film/TV: "Law & Order" trifecta, I Am Legend, The Understudy, The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, Suburban Girl, Rachel Getting Married and others.

Steven Pasquale is a Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award nominee for his work in Lincoln Center's A Man of No Importance. He has starred in Neil LaBute's Fat Pig (MCC), Beautiful Child (Vineyard Theatre), A Soldier's Story (Second Stage), Spinning into Butter (Lincoln Center), Spitfire Grill (Playwrights Horizons) and Miss Saigon. He created the role of Fabrizio in Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza. He has appeared on HBO's "Six Feet Under," Sophia Copola's Platinum and the indy films Aurora Borealis and The Last Run. He is the star of Fox's hit film AVP Requiem. He is best known for his work as Sean Garrity on FX's hit series "Rescue Me." Steven's debut jazz record "Somethin' Like Love" will be available everywhere this March. Steven was most recently seen in the Roundabout Theatre's star-studded concert of A Little Night Music opposite Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson and Victor Garber.

Piper Perabo. Although new to the theater, she is no stranger to the screen. In 2007, she was seen in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige with Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Scarlett Johansson, in Because I Said So with Diane Keaton, Mandy Moore and Lauren Graham and in First Snow, a film directed by Mark Fergus, costarring Guy Pearce and Adam Scott. Next, Perabo can be seen in John Glenn’s disturbing thriller The Heaven Project with Paul Walker and was most recently seen in Disney’s box office hit Beverly Hills Chihuahua alongside Jaime Lee Curtis. Perabo recently finished filming Paramount Vantage’s Carriers in New Mexico where she plays the female lead opposite Chris Pine and Lou Taylor Pucci in a post-apocalyptic thriller about four friends trying to escape a viral pandemic. Some of her more recent films include Adam Shankman’s Cheaper by the Dozen 2 in which she reprised her role as the eldest daughter to Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt along with the romantic comedy Imagine Me & You with Lena Heady and Matthew Goode and the crime drama 10th & Wolf with an ensemble cast that included James Marsden and Dennis Hopper. Her feature film debut was in the comedy White Boyz, written by Danny Hoch. She also starred in the comedy caper The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle opposite Robert De Niro and Renee Russo.

Thomas Sadoski originated the role of Greg in reasons to be pretty. He made his Broadway debut in 2004 playing Mary-Louise Parker's husband in the critically acclaimed Manhattan Theatre Club production of Craig Lucas' Reckless, directed by Mark Brokaw. His first job after graduating Circle in the Square Theater School was understudying and going on for Mark Ruffalo in Kenneth Lonergan's This is Our Youth at Second Stage Theatre; his current appearance in Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo marks his fifth production with the company. In 2006 and 2007, Sadoski starred in David Sedaris' one-man show Santaland Diaries at Long Wharf Theatre to capacity audiences. He is also a regular at the Williamstown Theater Festival (5 seasons), where he has worked with such  directors as Michael Greif, Joe Mantello and Darko Tresnjak. Sadoski has worked extensively developing new plays at New Dramatists, The Lark, The Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center and the Sundance Institute, as well as in productions at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Studio Dante and Naked Angels, among others. His TV work includes appearances on "As the World Turns," "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: CI" and an upcoming role on "Ugly Betty." Films include The New Twenty, Loser (directed by Amy Heckerling), Happy Hour, Company K and Winter Solstice.

NEIL LaBUTE received his Master of Fine Arts degree in dramatic writing from New York University and was the recipient of a literary fellowship to study at the Royal Court Theatre. Films include In the Company of Men (New York Critics’ Circle Award for Best First Feature, Filmmakers’ Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival), Your Friends and Neighbors, Nurse Betty, Possession, The Shape of Things—a film adaptation of his play by the same title—and The Wicker Man, starring Nicolas Cage. LaBute’s current film project is titled Lakeview Terrace and stars Samuel L. Jackson. It will be released in fall 2008. Plays include bash: latter-day plays, The Shape of Things, The Distance From Here, The Mercy Seat, Autobahn, Fat Pig, This Is How It Goes, Some Girl(s), In a Dark Dark House. LaBute is the author of several fictional pieces that have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar and Playboy, among others. A collection of his short stories was published by Grove/Atlantic in October 2004.

Terry Kinney co-founded the Steppenwolf Theatre with Gary Sinise and Jeff Perry in 1976. Since then, he has directed several plays for Steppenwolf, including The Violet Hour, A Streetcar Named Desire, A Clockwork Orange, …And a Nightingale Sang, Of Mice and Men, My Thing of Love and Streamers. In New York he’s directed After Ashley, Beautiful Child and The Agony and the Agony for the Vineyard Theatre, Eyes for Consuela for MTC and reasons to be pretty for MCC's Lucille Lortel Theater. On Broadway, he directed One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, starring Gary Sinise and Amy Morton, which received a Tony Award for Best Production of a Play. After directing the short film Kubuku Rides (This Is It) for Steppenwolf Films, Mr. Kinney directed his first full length feature Diminished Capacity with Matthew Broderick and Alan Alda. Perhaps best known for his portrayal of unit manager Tim McManus in HBO’s prison drama “Oz,” Kinney has also appeared in several films, including Save the Last Dance, Sleepers, Fly Away Home, House of Mirth, No Mercy, Last of the Mohicans, The Firm and Devil in a Blue Dress. Terry will soon be seen as Sergeant Harvey Brown on the upcoming ABC series “The Unusuals”, premiering in April. Other television appearances include victim Matthew Shepard’s father in the HBO movie, The Laramie Project, Kidnapped, the TNT movie Wallace, Showtime's That Championship Season and the FOX series “Canterbury’s Law” with Julianna Margulies.