This play completely took me by surprise and shocked me to my core. It's an uncomfortable, brutally honest look at incel culture, beauty standards, gender, sexuality, Jewish identity, and, of course, siblings. The final image is so haunting and affecting that I'm still thinking about it months after reading. I can't wait to see this play produced.

Plays about estranged siblings reconnecting can seem overdone but Derman finds a way to make it feel so original with this piece. I loved the way that beauty standards are explored in this play. I loved the way these siblings are brutally honest with each other and how much they say to each other without using a single word. Gender and sexuality is looked at in such a unique way here. I loved that Riley is a bi character. We need more bisexual representation onstage. Produce this play.

Premiere Stages, the professional Equity theatre company in residence at Kean University, is pleased to recognize Beauty as a Semi-Finalist for the 2025 Premiere Play Festival. Beauty rose through a competitive process conducted by Premiere staff and an external panel of professionals to become distinguished among 805 submissions. The panel was impressed by how the play deftly unpacked ideas about beauty, desirability, and feeling good in one's body. Our congratulations and thanks to Alexa.