No one familiar with Neil LaBute's plays will be surprised to hear that his fresh-from-the-computer reasons to be pretty, premiering at the Lucille Lortel, begins with a twentysomething man and woman going at it hammer-and-tongs. Indeed, since him-versus-her recriminations are the prolific dramatist's abiding theme, long-time fans of the playwright would undoubtedly be more shocked if the work began without a heated battle of the sexes in progress. In the end, however, despite the inclusion of some starkly incisive and abusive talk of the sort at which LaBute excels, this two-hour-and-20-minute entry comes across as a "here-we-go-again" enterprise.

The reason Steph (Alison Pill) is warri[...]