Monday, Nov. 03, 2008
Reasons to Be Pretty
The plays of Neil LaBute, American theater's most prolific and astute chronicler of the really bad things men do to women, are sometimes marred by contrivance and a too-facile cynicism. But every once in a while he hits it on the nose, as in this astringent tale of the assorted entanglements of two working-class couples. The fine off-Broadway production directed by Terry Kinney (moving to Broadway early next year) struck a nice balance between LaBute's truth-telling and his moralism.