Debbie Onstage

El Portal Theatre, North Hollywood :: February 4-15, 2004

CAST:

Melissa Gardner	Debbie Reynolds
Andrew Ladd	John Saxon

WRITTEN BY: A.R. Gurney

SYNOPSIS: A.R. Gurney's Love Letters chronicles the relationship between a man and a woman solely through their correspondence. The play tells the story of Andrew Makepeace Ladd and Melissa Gardner, whose poignantly funny friendship and ill-fated romance takes them from second grade through adolescence, maturity, and into middle age.

The production traces the lifelong correspondence of the staid, dutiful lawyer Andrew Makepeace Ladd III (Saxon) and the lively, unstable artist Melissa Gardner (Reynolds), the story of their bittersweet relationship gradually unfolds from what is written - and what is left unsaid - in their letters. The words are both hysterical and moving, the audience comes to know both of them intimately – from their strict WASP upbringing, through later life political aspirations, love affairs, military service and artistic ambitions.

A smash hit both off and on Broadway, Love Letters captures Andy and Melissa with a precision of detail and depth of feeling only Gurney can command.

HISTORY: A.R. Gurney discovered the effectiveness of the Love Letters presentation when he, along with actress Holland Taylor, read the then-unfinished script in lieu of a speech Gurney was to deliver at New York Public Library. After a six week run at the Long Wharf Theatre, Love Letters was first performed in New York on February 13, 1989, by John Rubinstein and Kathleen Turner.

In such critically acclaimed plays as The Dining Room and The Cocktail Hour, A.R. Gurney has wittily captured the manners of upper-middle class WASP America, but never as gracefully or with such dazzling economy as in Love Letters.

Presented by the award-winning production team from the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities, the Reynolds/Saxon production of Love Letters ran as part of the San Fernando Valley Playhouse's new 2004 season at the historic El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood, California. The theatre first opened in 1926 and has been a Hollywood landmark ever since - spanning the days of vaudeville, silent films and Academy Award winning motion pictures as a cinema, it has since been faithfully restored and is a sight to behold.

"Looking through my old books as far back as five years ago, I had notes that said, 'Check at the El Portal,' 'Ask what's with the El Portal,' every year for five years," Debbie explained in January, 2004. "This year, I didn't have work early in February. I admire the people who saved the El Portal. I admire their far-thinking attitudes for the arts. They're doing a great job, so I think it behooves those of us in the industry to take a couple of weeks and do a show."

The play is a simple visual presentation onstage - the actors read their scripts while both seated at a table and it is often performed by celebrities as a benefit piece.

Love Letters has been seen around the world, including a brief stint on Broadway featuring Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards. A cavalcade of stars have performed the piece, including Stockard Channing, Swoosie Kurtz, Nancy Marchand, Kate Nelligan, Paul Newman, Christopher Reeve, Robert Wagner & Jill St. John, Lauren Bacall & Richard Kiley, Lynn Redgrave, Joanne Woodward and many others.

For this 2004 production, Debbie helped to recruit an old friend, actor and '50s movie heartthrob John Saxon, with whom she starred in the 1958 Blake Edwards film "This Happy Feeling".