Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties, written by Jen Silverman, is set to replace the previously canceled production of Reasons to be Pretty Happy by Neil LaBute as part of MCC Theater's current season. The new comedy by The Moors playwright will be directed by MCC alum Mike Donahue, who helmed The Legend of Georgia McBride.
Read: MCC SEVERS TIES WITH PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE NEIL LABUTE
Last month, MCC announced that it was severing ties with then playwright-in-residence LaBute and would no longer produce his play Reasons to Be Pretty Happy. Instead, Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties will now begin previews August 16 ahead of a September 12 opening night at Off-Broadway's Lucille Lortel Theatre.
The new play tells the stories of five different women named Betty: one rich, one lonely, one charismatic, one lovelorn, and one who keeps working on her truck. When one of the women decides to stage a play, the five of them collide “at the intersection of rage, love, and the 'thea-tah.”
The full title of the play is Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties; In Essence, A Queer and Occasionally Hazardous Exploration; Do You Remember When You Were In Middle School And You Read About Shackleton And How He Explored the Antarctic? Imagine the Antarctic As a Pussy and It’s Sort of Like That.
The play originally premiered at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. in September 2016.
Casting and a full creative team for the New York premiere will be announced at a later date.
