By Rex Reed 11/16/11 10:06am

theater

Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays.

Star-Studded Bill of Playwrights of Standing On Ceremony Tackle Topical Wellspring That Is Gay Marriage

It had to happen. With the feeding frenzy over the passage of the same-sex marriage laws, in the press and in the chapel, someone had to come up with a play about it. Nine plays, in fact, staged in various venues across America (in New York, down at the Minetta Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village), featuring six skilled and adaptable actors reading the words of such diverse playwrights as Paul Rudnick, Moises Kaufman, Neil LaBute and Mo Gaffney, to name a few, on the subject of one of the biggest hot-button topics of the century. The umbrella title, Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, says it all. All you have to do is listen, shed an occasional tear and laugh a lot. There is something for everybody. Read More

By Andrew Sarris 9/16/08 6:31pm

Race to the Top: Three New Films on Black and White in America

Lakeview Terrace
Running time 110 minutes
Written by David Loughery and Howard Korder
Directed by Neil LaBute
Starring Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson

Neil LaBute’s Lakeview Terrace, from a screenplay by David Loughery and Howard Korder, based on the story by Mr. Loughery, explores our interracial malaise at Read More

By John Heilpern 6/19/06 12:00am

LaBute Tells It Like It Is— Again! Men Are Jerks

I very rarely hear from anyone I write about, though Neil LaBute is an exception. He drops me an e-mail whenever I review a new play of his, saying, in effect, “I’m sorry you didn’t like my play and fuck you.”

Well, fair enough. No artist in the history of the world has ever enjoyed Read More

By John Heilpern 6/19/06 12:00am

LaBute Tells It Like It Is- Again! Men Are Jerks

I very rarely hear from anyone I write about, though Neil LaBute is an exception. He drops me an e-mail whenever I review a new play of his, saying, in effect, “I’m sorry you didn’t like my play and fuck you.”

Well, fair enough. No artist in the history of the world has ever Read More

By Sara Vilkomerson 5/08/06 12:00am

Nanny Shows Fanny

Sitting in a corner banquette at DB Bistro Moderne the other day, the actress Fran Drescher quite understandably eschewed the signature foie-gras-stuffed burger in favor of mixed greens and a small plate of pasta. Beginning May 17 at the Lucille Lortel Theater, she’ll undergo what has become a rite of passage for today’s Hollywood leading Read More

By John Heilpern 12:00am

How Nice of Denzel to Join Us! But This Brutus Is a Bust

I must say that I’ve never appreciated movie stars who treat theater as a form of charity work. They sacrifice too much for me.

“So why knock yourself out?” The Times asked Denzel Washington about his role as Brutus in Julius Caesar on Broadway. “It’s obviously not for the money.”

“It’s like a long love Read More

By Rex Reed 5/12/03 12:00am

Women On Top In LaBute’s Latest

Neil LaBute wants to clear it up: The provocative, critically respected, commercially successful (sort of) writer-director whose controversial but acclaimed cinematic sexism called feminists to arms over In the Company of Men and Your Friends & Neighbors wants you to know he is not a misogynist. In his new film, The Shape of Things , Read More