The Money Shot
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Cititour.com Review
No one goes to a Neil LaBute play expecting to see civilized conversation or polite people, but the vitriolic, narcissistic, and generally quarrelsome quartet in the provocative playwright’s “The Money Shot”, now at the Lucille Lortel Theatre courtesy of MCC Theater, are a particularly unpleasant lot. Fortunately, they’re also quite entertaining thanks to LaBute’s sharp ear for a zingy one-liner or perfect putdown, Terry Kinney’s surefire direction, and, above all, a superb foursome of actors who do their utmost to bring this superficially satiric portrait of Hollywood babbling to full-bodied life.
Self-absorbed film stars Karen (Elizabeth Reaser) and Steve (Frederick Weller) have brought their respective other halves together – super-intelligent film editor Beverly (Callie Thorne) and wannabe actress Missy (Gia Crovatin) – at Karen’s gorgeous Hollywood Hills home (splendidly designed by Derek McClane) for the ostensible purpose of a serious discussion about their latest project. It seems the European director of their new action film wants them to have actual sex on-screen (even if Karen is now a lesbian) and the actors claim to want their partners’ approval before doing the dirty deed.
Of course, it takes most of the 100-minute play for this “urgent” conversation to actually begin, as they all digress onto an endless variety of subjects, from Steve’s “concern” over the much younger Missy’s tendency to gain weight to whether you can make jokes about the Nazis to the “question” of whether Belgium is actually in Europe. And, thanks in part to too much alcohol, the debate on who-can-do-what-with-whom barely begins before it devolves into a bizarre form of violent ritual, complete with some notoriously nasty name-calling and a slightly shocking side bet that one party surprisingly accepts. (Okay, it is a Neil LaBute play).
LaBute does ask us to make one giant leap: It’s hard to imagine why Beverly, who is clearly smart and reasonably attractive, would ever stay with Karen, a melodrama queen who seems to embody the worst characteristics of Jodie Foster and Gwyneth Paltrow combined. (Karen seems to accuse of Beverly of being in the relationship for the money and comfort it provides, but that never rings true).
Still, Reaser (glamorously decked out by Sarah J. Holden) is an absolute hoot, never afraid of going too far in her portrait of a woman so self-obsessed she sees the freeway traffic below her as a personal affront, while Thorne is positively brilliant as the frustrated Beverly, whose frequent flashes of dry disdain for the idiotic Steve are a highlight of the piece.
Having spent the spring playing the far more sensitive Cal in Terrence McNally’s “Mothers and Sons”, Weller has a field day as the arrogant, misogynistic, homophobic, moronic Steve. (And kudos to the 48-year-old actor for being in such great physical shape!). Meanwhile, Crovatin is simply delightful as the none-too-bright yet smarter-than-she-seems Missy, and her dance routine from her high school production of “The Crucible” (choreographed by Peter Pucci) is almost worth the price of admission.
Is “The Money Shot” really worth your hard-earned moolah? It depends. If you need to feel good about yourself -- or could simply use a hearty laugh or two -- there are far worse ways to spend your salary.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://www.mcctheater.org/shows/14-15_season/themoneyshot/index.html
Cast
Gia Crovatin, Elizabeth Reaser, Callie Thorne, Frederick Weller
Open/Close Dates
Opening 9/4/2014
Closing 10/19/2014
Box Office
866-811-4111
Theatre Info
Lucille Lortel Theatre
121 Christopher Street
New York, NY 10014
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