Reasons to see 'Reasons'

"Reasons to be Pretty" is playwright and filmmaker Neil LaBute's first "on" Broadway play and as such probably his most accessible script to date. With it, LaBute makes a more commercial departure from depicting characters so despicably narcissistic that you loathe and despise them, to characters merely so mundanely narcissistic that, unwisely, you may have begun to overlook them.

In my view, LaBute's body of work reveals a mission to expose, and thereby get revenge on, all the slimy narcissists he's encountered in his 46-year lifetime, but perhaps the lady projects too much. FSU/Asolo Conservatory, under the direction of Greg Leaming, has chosen well for its cast of talented graduate students with this consistently involving black comedy.

What happens when your girlfriend hears an unflattering description of her, wormed out of you by your friends and fellow factory workers? This is the dilemma faced by the main character, Greg (Tony Stopperan). Act I opens with an invective-laced screaming diatribe from the foul-mouthed lips of said girlfriend, who breaks up with him over the descriptive word used, which I won't reveal, as I waited to learn what could have prompted such a outpouring with baited breath for what seemed like forever. Much ado has been made over this particular stream of filth, but what I found most notable about it was the overuse of the word "whatever," which topped an MSNBC list of most hated words.

Stopperan is compelling and attractive in the lead role, an unpretentious, witty, young man who's experiencing a belated "coming of age" period of realization as to his place in life. He is one of the few LaBute characters you can relate to, a literature-reading, hapless fall guy in a milieu of TV Digest-reading, appearance- obsessed manipulators.

The villain, Kent, chauvinistic and self-centered manipulator in chief, is convincingly played by Jake Staley, no small task. Kent's lovely, but shallow and unfortunate wife Carly is performed with coy innocence by Ashley Scallon. Gretchen Porro plays the challenging role of Steph, the girlfriend. She is sympathetic and repulsive, understandable and pathetic.

Barbara Redmond, as director, keeps the audience hanging on every word. Redmond is also an actress (Gladys on NBC's "Search for Tomorrow"), head of acting at FSU, and a playwright produced at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Gevo Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and The Cleveland Play House.

The set design by Rick Cannon is minimalistic, but effectively suggestive, utilizing such icons as a mall direction map, a chainlink backstop, and a podium with a menu on it to indicate scene locations. In the second act there's an uncomfortably realistic fight between Greg and Kent at the baseball field, which is staged by Fight Director Robert Westley, who has staged violence for theaters, opera houses and film companies for the past 16 years. Amy J. Cianci's costume design was so apropos that I barely noticed it.

"Reasons to be Pretty" has been nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play. It is an important play by a very much talked-about contemporary author. His films include "In the Company of Men," "Your Friends and Neighbors," "Nurse Betty," "Possession," "The Shape of Things," "The Wicker Man," "Lakeview Terrace" and "Death at a Funeral." His plays include "Bash," "Latter Day Plays," "The Shape of Things," "The Mercy Seat," "The Distance from Here," "Autobahn," "Fat Pig," "Some Girls" and "This is How it Goes."