Alec Baldwin and Kelli O’Hara will star in the Westport Country Playhouse’s Spring Gala performance of A. R. Gurney’s play, “Love Letters,” on Thursday, April 12, at 7 p.m., it was announced today.
Alec Baldwin and Kelli O’Hara: Playhouse Spring Gala stars. Contributed photos
The one-night-only, $250 per ticket fundraising event will honor the memory of playwright A. R. “Pete” Gurney, who was a consistent contributor to the Playhouse stage, with 21 works produced there from 1980 through 2016. Gurney died last June at age 86.
The production will be helmed by Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director.
“’Love Letters’ shows Pete Gurney – the single most produced playwright at WCP – at the top of his form,” said Lamos.
“He valued simplicity above all else, and if a word excised could make a piece of dialogue sadder or funnier or more dramatic, he knew just which one to toss. He loved simple sets, small casts; he hated all things bloated, over-produced or overwrought.”
Baldwin, an Emmy Award-winning actor recently known for playing President Trump on “Saturday Night Live,” will portray Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Kelli O’Hara, a Tony Award-winning actress and Westport mother, will play Melissa Gardner in “Love Letters.”
The unique and imaginative theater piece is comprised of letters exchanged over a lifetime between two people who grew up together, went their separate ways, but continued to share confidences.
Their letters tell how much they really meant to each other over the years—physically apart, perhaps, but spiritually close.
Tickets to the Playhouse’s Spring Gala are $250, of which $200 is tax deductible. Proceeds will benefit the non-profit 501(c) (3), professional, producing theater, now in its 88th season – its work on stage, with schools, and throughout the community.
