A witty, perceptive and thoroughly entertaining dissection of the urban "friends-as-family" generation, 'Beautiful Bodies' is a dazzling comedy of manners in the high literary tradition of Dorothy Parker and Mary McCarthy.
It's Manhattan, on the coldest night of the year and six best friends are rushing to celebrate a festive evening. Blown by wind and snow, the women arrive flushed, each caught in mid-adventure . . .
Jessie, the hostess, is late for her own party, lost in reveries of the man she just met. Sue Carol, a professional "wacktress" (waitress and actor) enters, with a suitcase - she has left her unfaithful husband. Lisbeth, a dreamy ex-Vogue model, is battling her landlord who has installed his fat son, behind a partition. Nina, the spa owner, is fleeing a vegetarian with a "weird sexual organ".
They are all eager to see the guest of honour, who vanished after becoming pregnant by a glorious one night stand with a man she met at the fruit store. "You conceived a child with a man you met on the street?" accuses Martha, the power realtor. Is the gypsyish Claire, whose income is somewhat less than her phone bill, misguided or inspired?
The delirious debate rages over wine and succulent Cornish hens. Who will win - the romantics or the realists? How can modern working women triumph in such trying times? While the cellphones chime and biological clocks rewind, the friends enact a timeless ceremony.
