- Love Letters (play)
"Love Letters" is a
Pulitzer Prize for Drama nominated play byA. R. Gurney . The play centers on just two characters, Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepiece Ladd III. Using theepistolary form sometimes found innovels , they sit side by side at tables and read the correspondence - in which they discuss their hopes and ambitions, dreams and disappointments, victories and defeats - that has passed between them throughout their separated lives. It is only at the sad ending that they realize they were really love letters all along.The play is a performance favorite for busy name actors, for it requires little preparation, and lines should not be memorized.
It was first performed in 1988 at the
Long Wharf Theatre inNew Haven, Connecticut withJoanna Gleason andJohn Rubinstein .Directed by
John Tillinger , it opened withKathleen Turner and Rubinstein onMarch 27 ,1989 at theoff-Broadway Promenade Theatre, where it ran for 64 performances. The play was performed only on Sunday and Monday evenings and changed its cast weekly. Among those who appeared in it wereBarbara Barrie ,Philip Bosco ,Stephen Collins ,Victor Garber ,Julie Harris ,George Grizzard ,Anthony Heald ,George Hearn ,Richard Kiley ,Dana Ivey ,William Hurt ,Marsha Mason ,Christopher Reeve ,Holland Taylor ,George Segal ,Christopher Walken ,Joan Van Ark ,Treat Williams , andFrances Sternhagen .On
October 31 that same year, a Broadway production opened at theEdison Theatre , where it ran for 96 performances. It opened withColleen Dewhurst andJason Robards . Other performers paired in the Broadway production includedLynn Redgrave and John Clark,Stockard Channing andJohn Rubinstein ,Jane Curtin andEdward Hermann ,Kate Nelligan andDavid Dukes ,Polly Bergen andRobert Vaughn ,Timothy Hutton andElizabeth McGovern ,Swoosie Kurtz and Richard Thomas,Elaine Stritch andCliff Robertson ,Nancy Marchand andFritz Weaver , andRobert Foxworth andElizabeth Montgomery .The play has been performed by
Carol Burnett ,Brian Dennehy ,Mel Gibson , andSissy Spacek at the Sheridan Opera House in Telluride,Colorado [cite news | title = Welcome to Telluride - Now Go Away | author = Robert Weller | publisher =Associated Press | date =1993-07-17 ]In 1999, Gurney adapted "Love Letters" for a
television movie , directed byStanley Donen , that dramatized scenes and portrayed characters merely described in the play.Laura Linney andSteven Weber starred.On December 1, 2007,
Elizabeth Taylor andJames Earl Jones gave a benefit performance of the play, to raise $1 million for Taylor's AIDS foundation. Tickets for the show were priced at $2,500 and more than 500 people attended. This event happened to coincide with the2007 Writers Guild of America strike and, rather than cross the picket line, Taylor requested a "one night dispensation". The Writers Guild agreed not to picket the Paramount Pictures lot that night, to allow for the performance.cite news
author=Associated Press
url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/12/02/elizabeth.taylor.ap/index.html
title=Striking writers give Elizabeth Taylor a pass
publisher=CNN.com
date=2007-12-02
accessdate = 2007-12-02]On July 26, 2008,
Sigourney Weaver andJeff Daniels performed "Love Letters" at theDetroit Institute of Art 'sDetroit Film Theater in a benefit for thePurple Rose Theatre Company .References
External links
* [http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&title=Love%20Letters Off Broadway listing, Lortel site]
* [http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4249/ Internet Broadway Database listing]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171492/ Internet Movie Database listing]
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