Love Letters

A Kiss, a Sigh ...
and a Postage Stamp

Love Letters Cast Members on Their
Own Correspondence
By ALEXIS SOLOSKISEPT. 11, 2014
Photo

Credit Dominic Bugatto
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What makes a great love letter?
Sincerity, Stacy Keach said.
A kind of excess, Mia Farrow said.
Good spelling, good grammar and passion, Carol Burnett said.
Well, they can fight it out during intermission.
On Thursday, the Broadway revival of A. R. Gurneys 1989 play, Love Letters, directed by Gregory
Mosher, opens at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. Brian Dennehy will play Andrew Makepeace Ladd III, a
buttoned-up blue blood. Ms. Farrow will play Melissa Gardner, an unruly woman whose blood runs even
bluer.
Seated side by side, rarely glancing at each other, theyll read aloud from five decades of correspondence:
mash notes, party invitations, the record of a disastrous coupling at the Harvard-Yale game. Later in the
run, actors including Mr. Keach, Ms. Burnett, Diana Rigg, Alan Alda, Anjelica Huston, Candice Bergen
and Martin Sheen will take over the roles.
Related Coverage

interactive
Fall Arts Preview Times 100SEPT. 4, 2014

The playwright and several members of the cast spoke about the place of love letters and the occasional
piece of hate mail in their lives. These are excerpts from their responses.
STACY KEACH
Photo

Stacy Keach
Is there a love letter you remember particularly?
I wrote it when I was 14 to Janet Reed. She had beautiful blue eyes and blond hair. I wrote: Every time I
look at you, I think of starry nights and exotic places. Anytime you would like to make out, I want you to
know Im available. Janet complained to our teacher. I was totally crestfallen. But some weeks later, Janet
told me that she had broken up with her boyfriend and was available for a hot-fudge sundae.
Is it possible to write a great love email?
Texting is better than email. You have those little figures with hearts and flowers emoticons. They warm
up a text. My wife and I are constantly texting little lovey things.
DIANA RIGG
Photo

Diana Rigg Credit John Timbers
I was doing Abelard and Heloise, and I got this letter from this famous, famous comedian, Spike
Milligan. It was a love letter of such proportion that I simply didnt know how to reply. I anguished over it.
And finally I didnt write. Two weeks later, I got a letter from him telling me what a bitch I was.
What makes a good love letter?
A man who writes a good love letter is a man who knows how to seduce with words.
Is there a special quality to a physical letter?
I think theres something absolutely essential. The great, great poet Ted Hughes once told me there is a line
between the brain, the arm, the hand and the paper.
BRIAN DENNEHY
Photo

Brian Dennehy
Have you written or received more love letters?
I receive a lot of fake love letters, fan letters.
Do you have a favorite?
The most interesting was from John Wayne Gacy, who was in prison at the time, awaiting execution. I
played him in To Catch a Killer. It was a letter of disappointment in the fact that one of his favorite
actors had participated in this calumny. The movie revealed that 33 bodies of young boys were buried in
the crawl space of his little house. His explanation: Lots of people had access to that crawl space.
Has something been lost in the move away from handwritten letters?
I suspect thats true. Our courtship is probably closer to the courtship of chimpanzees.
Can chimpanzees send penis pictures over the Internet?
Good point. I must say Ive never done that. Being Irish and having a big belly, it would be a wasted
enterprise.
A. R. GURNEY
Have you written more love letters than youve received?
I have. I went to a single-sex college, and the girls I was in love with were at single-sex colleges. We all
communicated by mail. It wasnt just love letters. Sometimes it was very practical: Have you read
Aeschylus The Libation Bearers? Can you give me any notes?
Do you have good penmanship?
I used to.
Is there a love letter youve saved that matters to you most?
The women Ive really fallen in love with my wife, for instance do not write letters. I had a letter-
writing relationship with a woman who lived in Buffalo. I think of all those letters and what fun it was, the
jokes we had. She wrote to me after Love Letters came out. She said, I burned all your letters.
CAROL BURNETT
Photo

Carol Burnett
Is there a love letter thats especially important to you?
I wrote one to my husband a few years ago, a poem. It said: There were no colors on my palette until I met
you. Things are a mess and all of that, but everythings a rainbow because I met you. It was long! I drew a
couple of things in the margins. It was very corny, but it was from the heart.
MIA FARROW
Do you remember the first love letter you ever received?
I was 17, and it was from a boy in another school. It was all about what he was doing in football. To me, it
meant the world. I read it ragged. I still have it. It never went close to saying, I love you, but it said he
hoped he would see me again. That was to me a love letter.
Did you see him again?
Yes. But we were chaperoned. He took me to the ballet, but we had grown-ups with us.
I do think you can as long as you dont use emojis. But when I took those first letters to bed with me,
knowing he had touched them, knowing he had put his hand on the very paper I was holding, was very
special and intimate.
Ive collected my love letters. And crazily, Ive alphabetized them. I really should go through them. And
probably burn a bunch.
ANJELICA HUSTON
Photo

Anjelica Huston
Do you remember the first love letter you ever wrote?
The first love letters I wrote were to my mother. And to my father, who was away a lot. Romantic letters
started when I was 11 or 12. The first I remember was a valentine. I did a whole decorative thing with
safety pins. The object of my affection opened up his desk on Valentines Day and said: Ugh. I can tell
Anjelica did this.
Depth of feeling. And courage.
Do you keep them?
Ive never thrown away a letter. I take them out every few years. Sometimes you forget youve been
appreciated.
A Kiss, a Sigh ... and a Postage Stamp
Love Letters Cast Members on Their
Own Correspondence
By ALEXIS SOLOSKISEPT. 11, 2014
Photo

Credit Dominic Bugatto
Continue reading the main story Share This Page
email
facebook
twitter
save
more
What makes a great love letter?
Sincerity, Stacy Keach said.
A kind of excess, Mia Farrow said.
Good spelling, good grammar and passion, Carol Burnett said.
Well, they can fight it out during intermission.
On Thursday, the Broadway revival of A. R. Gurneys 1989 play, Love Letters, directed by Gregory
Mosher, opens at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. Brian Dennehy will play Andrew Makepeace Ladd III, a
buttoned-up blue blood. Ms. Farrow will play Melissa Gardner, an unruly woman whose blood runs even
bluer.
Seated side by side, rarely glancing at each other, theyll read aloud from five decades of correspondence:
mash notes, party invitations, the record of a disastrous coupling at the Harvard-Yale game. Later in the
run, actors including Mr. Keach, Ms. Burnett, Diana Rigg, Alan Alda, Anjelica Huston, Candice Bergen
and Martin Sheen will take over the roles.
Related Coverage

interactive
Fall Arts Preview Times 100SEPT. 4, 2014

The playwright and several members of the cast spoke about the place of love letters and the occasional
piece of hate mail in their lives. These are excerpts from their responses.
STACY KEACH
Photo

Stacy Keach
I wrote it when I was 14 to Janet Reed. She had beautiful blue eyes and blond hair. I wrote: Every time I
look at you, I think of starry nights and exotic places. Anytime you would like to make out, I want you to
know Im available. Janet complained to our teacher. I was totally crestfallen. But some weeks later, Janet
told me that she had broken up with her boyfriend and was available for a hot-fudge sundae.
Texting is better than email. You have those little figures with hearts and flowers emoticons. They warm
up a text. My wife and I are constantly texting little lovey things.
DIANA RIGG
Photo

Diana Rigg Credit John Timbers
I was doing Abelard and Heloise, and I got this letter from this famous, famous comedian, Spike
Milligan. It was a love letter of such proportion that I simply didnt know how to reply. I anguished over it.
And finally I didnt write. Two weeks later, I got a letter from him telling me what a bitch I was.
A man who writes a good love letter is a man who knows how to seduce with words.
Is there a special quality to a physical letter?
I think theres something absolutely essential. The great, great poet Ted Hughes once told me there is a line
between the brain, the arm, the hand and the paper.
BRIAN DENNEHY
Photo

Brian Dennehy
Have you written or received more love letters?
I receive a lot of fake love letters, fan letters.
Do you have a favorite?
The most interesting was from John Wayne Gacy, who was in prison at the time, awaiting execution. I
played him in To Catch a Killer. It was a letter of disappointment in the fact that one of his favorite
actors had participated in this calumny. The movie revealed that 33 bodies of young boys were buried in
the crawl space of his little house. His explanation: Lots of people had access to that crawl space.
Has something been lost in the move away from handwritten letters?
I suspect thats true. Our courtship is probably closer to the courtship of chimpanzees.
Can chimpanzees send penis pictures over the Internet?
Good point. I must say Ive never done that. Being Irish and having a big belly, it would be a wasted
enterprise.
A. R. GURNEY
Have you written more love letters than youve received?
I have. I went to a single-sex college, and the girls I was in love with were at single-sex colleges. We all
communicated by mail. It wasnt just love letters. Sometimes it was very practical: Have you read
Aeschylus The Libation Bearers? Can you give me any notes?
Do you have good penmanship?
I used to.
Is there a love letter youve saved that matters to you most?
The women Ive really fallen in love with my wife, for instance do not write letters. I had a letter-
writing relationship with a woman who lived in Buffalo. I think of all those letters and what fun it was, the
jokes we had. She wrote to me after Love Letters came out. She said, I burned all your letters.
CAROL BURNETT
Photo

Carol Burnett
Is there a love letter thats especially important to you?
I wrote one to my husband a few years ago, a poem. It said: There were no colors on my palette until I met
you. Things are a mess and all of that, but everythings a rainbow because I met you. It was long! I drew a
couple of things in the margins. It was very corny, but it was from the heart.
MIA FARROW
Do you remember the first love letter you ever received?
I was 17, and it was from a boy in another school. It was all about what he was doing in football. To me, it
meant the world. I read it ragged. I still have it. It never went close to saying, I love you, but it said he
hoped he would see me again. That was to me a love letter.
Did you see him again?
Yes. But we were chaperoned. He took me to the ballet, but we had grown-ups with us.
I do think you can as long as you dont use emojis. But when I took those first letters to bed with me,
knowing he had touched them, knowing he had put his hand on the very paper I was holding, was very
special and intimate.
Ive collected my love letters. And crazily, Ive alphabetized them. I really should go through them. And
probably burn a bunch.
ANJELICA HUSTON
Photo

Anjelica Huston
Do you remember the first love letter you ever wrote?
The first love letters I wrote were to my mother. And to my father, who was away a lot. Romantic letters
started when I was 11 or 12. The first I remember was a valentine. I did a whole decorative thing with
safety pins. The object of my affection opened up his desk on Valentines Day and said: Ugh. I can tell
Anjelica did this.
Depth of feeling. And courage.
Do you keep them?
Ive never thrown away a letter. I take them out every few years. Sometimes you forget youve been
appreciated.

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A Kiss, a Sigh ...

and a Postage Stamp

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