Not always, but most of the time,
the quality that keeps me at arms’ length from plays by Neil LaBute is that, though he purports to present us with
adult characters, they always seem to me to be playing out adolescent issues;
they seem not only immature (which, heaven knows, adults can be) but callow as
well.
That’s
not a problem with his latest, The Money Shot, a production of his NY home company
MCC (per usual at the Lucille Lortel), because in this one, the whole point
is the rampant superficiality that can often pervade and dominate the Hollywood
life style and film industry.
Because
it’s a 90 minute play with no ‘mish, and depends on its impact for discovery of
the characters’ motivations, and irony in how the evening plays out, I’m loath
to say too much except a few basics. Bev (Callie Thorne) a film editor, has bent her schedule out of shape
to make time for this dinner at the home she shares with her lover Karen (Elizabeth
Reaser)—actually, reverse that, it’s
the home Karen shares with Bev; Karen is, after all, the move star. And though
that star hasn’t faded, her career isn’t quite what it was. Neither is that of
Steve (Fred Weller); and so he
has come with his deceptively simple-seeming new, younger wife Missy (Gia
Crovatin) in tow. They’ve all gathered to
discuss the plans Karen and Steve have to boost their box office.
Though
The Money Shot isn’t a farce in the
sense of employing mistaken identity, multiple doors and ever-more-tightly
knotted complications, it does indeed have the build of a well-constructed
farce and does indeed lead to a catharsis of action and surprise, as one
Hollywood absurdity becomes piled upon another—with the biggest surprise
of all, I suppose, being that all of it seems entirely credible!
Under
the direction of Terry Kinney, the
quartet of actors showcase the best kind of fearlessness, the kind farce
demands, and they dive right into…I was going to say the deep end of the pool, but
in more ways than one, this play is about shallow ends. But you know what I
mean.
Or
maybe you don’t. But let The Money Shot enlighten
you. Which it will. One way or another…
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