MCC Theater (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, Artistic Directors; William Cantler, Associate Artistic Director; Blake West, Executive Director) announced that Logan Marshall-Green and Piper Perabo (current star of MCC’s production of reasons to be pretty) will join the cast of tonight’s special reading of Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street).

These two readings of plays by Neil LaBute exploring America’s obsession with physical beauty highlights the current LaBute play Off-Broadway. MCC’s current production of LaBute’s bristling new comic drama reasons to be pretty puts a final, ferocious cap on a trilogy of plays that began with The Shape of Things and Fat Pig (which MCC also premiered). The series brings together many of the original artists from the first two plays in the trilogy in support of the critically-acclaimed reasons to be pretty, which marks the sixth collaboration between MCC Theater and LaBute, MCC’s Playwright-in-Residence.

Mr. Marshall-Green and Ms. Perabo complete a cast that includes Anna Camp (The Country Girl, The Scene) and Austin Lysy (Hitch, A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Acclaimed director Carolyn Cantor, who last worked with Neil LaBute on MCC Theater’s 2007 production of In a Dark Dark House, will direct. Logan Marshall-Green replaces Paul Rudd who, due to a last-minute schedule change, will not be available to perform in the reading.

This special one-night-only reading of The Shape of Things is performed tonight, Monday, June 23 at 7:00 p.m. at the Lortel, where reasons to be pretty is currently playing to sold-out audiences. As previously announced, reasons to be pretty will transfer to Broadway later this season.

A limited number of tickets for The Shape of Things are still available and can be purchased at the Lucille Lortel box office, by visiting www.mcctheater.org or through www.ticketcentral.com or by calling (212) 279-4200.

Source: TheFutonCritic.com

Meanwhile, NBC is still keeping its midseason options open as promotional materials for four of its pilots that didn’t make its 2008-09 schedule have been released:

BLUE BLOOD - “THERE’S A NEW ROOKIE IN TOWN. From the Hamptons to the South Bronx, Blue Blood follows the true story of Harvard educated cop Ed Conlon in his first year as an NYPD officer. He joins a group of rookies, fresh out of the academy, assigned to beat patrol. Despite what the academy taught them, they will learn that being a rookie is as much about upholding the law as it is about survival on the streets. Blue Blood is an action drama that takes us into the hearts and minds of those sworn to protect and serve.” Cast: Logan Marshall-Green as Ed, Kate Levering as Colt, Vincent Piazza as Bobby, April Lee Hernandez as Sophia, Larenz Tate as Andre, Alex Fernandez as Sgt. Vargas. Studios: 20th Century Fox Television, Little Engine.

Logan is mentioned as being the inspiration for a short film at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Source: NY daily News

In the short “All Saints Day,” a quietly sad young woman (Mamie Gummer, daughter of Meryl Streep) is heading home in a bedraggled costume the morning after Halloween - and an unsatisfying one-night stand.

Looking for directions, she strikes up a conversation with a charming young man (Benjamin Walker) sipping a cup of coffee on his Manhattan stoop.

Writer Brooke Berman came up with the idea for the plot the old-fashioned way: She and director Will Frears (son of Stephen Frears) stole it from life.

“Will heard this great story from our friend, [actor] Logan Marshall-Green,” says Berman, who is developing an expanded version of the short.

“Logan’s birthday is Nov. 1, and every year on his birthday his favorite thing to do is get up early, make a cup of coffee and go sit on the steps and watch the walk of shame in costume.”

With that seed of an idea, Berman, who was living in L.A. at the time, wrote the first draft in a day - after a little digging for details.

Source: Playbill

The New York Stage and Film Company will present a one-night-only reading of Stephen Belber’s Geometry of Fire March 10.

Directed by Lucie Tiberghien, the reading will be presented at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Black Box Theatre. The cast will feature Reed Birney, Donnie Keshawarz, Logan Marshall-Green and Jennifer Mudge.

“One man is a Marine reservist sniper just back from Iraq,” according to Geometry press notes. “The other is a Saudi American looking for the cause of his father’s death. When their paths cross, they collide and both men grapple with their past and their future. This timely play is an intimate, humorous exploration of the complications of war and the effects on those involved.”

Geometry of Fire made its world premiere as part of The New York Stage and Film Company’s 2007 Powerhouse Season. The upcoming reading will feature Belber’s revision of Geometry based on that production, which co-starred Mia Barron, Reed Birney, Piter Marek and Logan Marshall-Green.

The evening will begin at 6:30 PM with a reception followed by the 7 PM reading.

Roundabout Theatre Company’s Black Box Theatre is located at the Harold & Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, 111 West 46th Street in New York. For reservations e-mail efox@newyorkstageandfilm.org.

Source: theatermania

Logan Marshall-Green, Matthew Stadelmann, and Audrey Lynn Weston will be among the cast members of Gina Gionfriddo’s U.S. Drag, which will begin performances at the Beckett Theatre on February 23. The show, which will be directed by Trip Cullman, will open officially on March 1.The dark comedy is about two recent college grads on the hunt for love, money, meaning, and Ed — New York’s most elusive serial attacker. Gionfriddo’s plays include After Ashley, Becky Shaw, Guinevere, and Blue Movie.

The cast for will also include Tanya Fischer, Rebecca Henderson, Lisa Joyce, James Martinez, and Michael Mosley. The creative team will include Sandra Goldmark (sets), Nicole Pearce (lighting), Emily Rebholz (costumes), and Bart Fassbinder (sound).

Marshall-Green’s stage credits include King Lear, Pig Farm, Dog Sees God, and Swimming in the Shallows. Stadelmann’s credits include Rag and Bone, American Sligo, and Stone Cold Dead Serious. Weston is currently appearing in Widows, and her other credits include Rag and Bone and REARVIEW MIRROR.

Cullman’s prior directing credits include Some Men, Swimming in the Shallows, and The Last Sunday in June. He will also be directing The Drunken City at Playwrights Horizons later this season.

For more information, visit www.thestagefarm.org.