Paragon Theatre Company’s “Reasons to Be Pretty” is a very good production of a very ugly play. This is the kind of nasty character stuff that actors just love to sink their teeth into. But they leave their saliva all over an audience that must wonder what they ever did to deserve it.
Now in its 10th year, Paragon just can’t seem to break the cycle of violence it’s locked in with Dave Mamet disciple Neil LaBute, a writer who has made his name creating vapid characters whose only substantive traits seem to be the ability to be pretty and petty. Like the pigs who casually torment a deaf secretary in the film, “In the Company of Men.”
Add in “Fat Pig,” “The Shape of Things” and more, and this is not a genre of cruelty that LaBrute, er, LaBute has forged. It’s a tired formula.
These are not the kind of people you’d want to spend five seconds with in real life — you know, the kind who fill LoDo on any given Saturday night. So why would you want to be locked in a theater with them for two hours?
Well, to see good performances. There’s that. Brandon Kruhm, Desiree Gagnon and a particularly odious David Cates give top-notch ones in “Reasons to Be Pretty,” the third Paragon staging of a LaBute play in just the past six years. . . . (“Uncle!”)
The play opens amid a thrilling fusillade of invective. Steph (Gagnon) is just unloading on boyfriend Greg (Kruhm) after finding out out that he compared her looks unfavorably to those of a co-worker.
A moronic thing for any boyfriend to say to his best friend, of course. But what kind of world is it where, out of four characters, he’s the good guy? Steph is ugly — and that’s no comment on her appearance. The character is psychotic, combative and incapable of rational or mature conversation, much less a healthy relationship.
Some in the audience will side with Steph purely on principle, despite an overreaction that borders on the pathological. But we’re directed in heavy-handed ways throughout the play to empathize with Greg. He’s a decent enough guy who takes responsibility for his mistake, and tries to make amends.
That opening salvo, though, leaves nowhere for the play to go. The rest is aftermath. And seeing two people in pain doesn’t make us feel their pain. It just puts us in agony, too.
Kent (Cates) is Greg’s co-worker at a dead-end warehouse where they move boxes. He’s a classic LaBute archetype — the callous dolt who’s such a misanthrope, he makes our flawed protagonist seem respectable by comparison. Kent brags about cheating on his pregnant wife, Carly (Lauren Bahlman). Poor girl? No. She’s the jerk who served up Greg to Steph on a plate in the first place, knowing full well the carnage it would bring — while living in full denial about her own prince.
Seriously, with friends like these . . . who needs friends?
Much of what director Holly Ann Peterson is presenting on the stage doesn’t always jive with what’s written on the page, yet we’ve no choice but to go along. And while Paragon is known for its funky and provocative sets, this is perhaps its least compelling playing space to date. But in a fun twist, sound designer Jarrod Holbrook interjects a helpful urgency by interspersing updated, rockified covers of classic breakup songs like “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane,” “Nothing Compares 2 You” and “I Will Survive.”
We’re told that “Reasons to be Pretty” confronts America’s obsession with physical beauty headlong. But it doesn’t — not in any significant way.
It’s just as easy to see the play as a cautionary tale about how one sap’s seemingly noble adherence to two dysfunctional, damaging relationships — with his girlfriend and his best friend — only get him beaten up.
The play ends with a bird being flipped. And after all the verbal and actual bloodletting that has taken place, we can’t help but wonder if that gesture is directed at the world — or at us.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“Reasons to Be Pretty” **1/2
Paragon Theatre, 1385 S. Santa Fe Drive. Written by Neil LaBute. Directed by Holly Ann Peterson. Through Feb. 26. 2 hours. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. $17-$21 (2-for-1 Thursdays). 303-300-2210 or . Caution: Extreme profanity.
This weekend’s Best Bet: “Red Bastard”
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Eric Davis, a veteran performer with Cirque du Soleil and self-described as “America’s premier bouffon,” is not here to please you. His mission: to disarm, shock and seduce you. In “Red Bastard,” Davis leads his audience through a no-holds-barred theatrical master class — demanding nothing less than the existential query, “Who the hell do you think you are?” 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 5. Presented by Gemma Wilcox Productions at Naropa University, 2130 Arapahoe Ave. Boulder, 800-838-3006 or .
This weekend’s other theater openings
“Camelot” Classic Lerner and Lowe musical about the marriage of England’s King Arthur to his lady Guinevere, played out amid the pageantry of Camelot. Numbers include “The Lusty Month of May” and “If Ever I Would Leave You.” Through April 17. Jesters Dinner Theatre, 224 Main St., Longmont, 303-682-9980 or
“An Evening With Mr. Johnson” Ed, lamenting the end of another relationship, blames his penis for his infidelities. An actor playing said body part explains the facts of life and relationships to poor Ed. There are both a straight and gay version of the play, presented on different nights. Through March 13. Dangerous Theatre, 2620 W. 2nd Ave., Unit 1, Denver, 720-233-4703 or
“The Fantasticks” Fanciful musical about two teens whose fathers have hatched a plan to bring these families together … only by first tearing them apart. Songs include “Try to Remember.” Through March 27. Union Colony Dinner Theatre, 802 9th Ave., Greeley, 970-352-2900 or
“Lovers Split Strangers” The Mercury Motley Players’ annual Valentine’s Follies is described as a perverse romantic comedy that takes Cupid’s satiric aim at Tom Trancredo, Ted Haggert, Mary Cheney, Glen Beck and the whole Palin family. Through Feb. 25. Mercury Cafe, 2199 California St., 303 294-9258, or
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Shakespeare’s most beguiling comedy centers on four young lovers who find themselves lost in a world where the moon is full, love is in the air — and just around the bend, a man has been transformed into an ass. Through Feb. 26. Denver Center Theatre Company, Stage Theatre, 14th and Curtis streets, 303-893-4100 or
“Pygmalion” George Bernard Shaw’s classic 1912 tale of phonetics professor Henry Higgins, who makes a bet that he can train bedraggled Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle to pass for a duchess. Through March 6. 73rd Avenue Theatre Company, 7287 Lowell Blvd., Westminster, 720-276-6936 or
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