Geffen Playhouse Removes Neil LaBute’s ‘Fat Pig’ From Schedule

UDPATED with Chrissy Metz having left production in January: The Geffen Playhouse today said it was removing its production of Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig from the Los Angeles theater’s 2017-2018 schedule. The axing of the play, which at one point was to star This Is Us‘ Chrissy Metz in her stage debut, comes less than two weeks after the off-Broadway MCC Theater severed ties with LaBute, its longtime playwright-in-residence, and canceled his new play Reasons To Be Pretty Happy which was to premiere there in August.

Like the MCC, the Geffen made no additional comment about the move, saying only that Amanda Peet’s play Our Very Own Carlin McCullough would replace Fat Pig on the schedule. Peet’s play revolved around a  single mother who discovers her 10-year-old daughter is a tennis phenom and the dedicated coach who takes her under his wing, with the three struggling over what is best when building up a champion. Tyne Rafaeli will direct, and performances will begin this summer.

Metz was set to topline Fat Pig, which was to begin previews May 16 and open May 23. LaBute, who was let go by the MCC Theater on February 15, first debuted the play in 2004. It follows what happens when a young man falls in love with a smart, sexy, beautiful woman who also happens to be big, much to the amusement, and then chagrin, of his snobby social circle. The Geffen hosted a production of the play in 2007.

Our Very Own Carlin McCullough was part of the Geffen Playhouse’s New Play Development Program. Peet’s first play, The Commons of Pensacola, ran at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2013 starring Blythe Danner and Sarah Jessica Parker.