A Staged Reading
on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage
by A.R. Gurney
Directed by Ciarán O’Reilly
Starring Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti
Limited last-minute tickets released daily – Lottery Tickets available on TodayTix beginning May 30th, 2023 + be sure to check our website for last-minute cancelations!
A Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama, A.R Gurney’s Love Letters is a two-hander drama comprised of letters exchanged between two friends over a lifetime. Andrew and Melissa, both born into wealth and position, begin their correspondence in childhood with birthday party thank-you notes. Their letters continue through their boarding school and college years while they are romantically attached and later through their individual marriages and careers. As the actors read the letters aloud, an evocative, touching, frequently funny, but always telling pair of character studies is revealed, where what is implied is as revealing and affecting as what is written down.
Directed by John Tillinger, Love Letters opened with Kathleen Turner and John Rubenstein on March 27, 1989, at the Off-Broadway Promenade Theatre, which ran for 64 performances. The play was performed only on Sunday and Monday evenings and changed its cast weekly. On October 31 of that same year, a production opened at the Edison Theatre on Broadway, where it ran for 96 performances. It opened with Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards. Other performers paired in the Broadway production included Lynn Redgrave and John Clark, Stockard Channing, and John Rubinstein, and Timothy Hutton and Elizabeth McGovern.
Limited last-minute tickets released daily – Lottery Tickets available on TodayTix beginning May 30th, 2023 + be sure to check our website for last-minute cancelations!
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Matthew Broderick made his stage debut at 17 in Horton Foote’s On Valentine’s Day opposite his father, James Broderick. Off-Broadway: Torch Song Trilogy (OCC, Villager Award), The Widow Claire. He has appeared twice at Irish Rep in The Seafarer and Shining City (combined Obie Award with Evening at the Talk House at The New Group in 2017). Broadway: Brighton Beach Memoirs (Tony, OCC, Theatre World awards), Biloxi Blues, How to Succeed in Business… (Tony, DD, OCC awards), Night Must Fall, Taller Than a Dwarf, The Producers (Tony, DD, OCC nominations), The Foreigner, The Philanthropist, The Odd Couple, Nice Work If You Can Get It, It’s Only a Play and Plaza Suite. Films include: Max Dugan Returns, WarGames, 1918, On Valentine’s Day, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Project X, Ladyhawke, Biloxi Blues, Glory, Family Business, The Freshman, The Lion King, Infinity, The Cable Guy, Addicted to Love, Election, You Can Count on Me, The Last Shot, Marie and Bruce, Wonderful World, The Producers, Bee Movie, Tower Heist, Rules Don’t Apply, Margaret, Manchester By The Sea, and the upcoming No Hard Feelings. Coming soon: Only Murders in the Building, and Painkiller for Netflix.
Laura Benanti hailed by The New York Times for her “effortless” vocals, and by the New York Post for her ability to “whip up laughs out of thin air,” Ms. Benanti first took Broadway by storm at the age of 18 as Maria in The Sound of Music, and has subsequently starred in ten more Broadway shows (musicals, straight plays, comedies and dramas) including Into the Woods, Nine (opposite Antonio Banderas), Gypsy (for which she won a Tony® Award), She Loves Me, My Fair Lady, and Steve Martin’s Meteor Shower opposite Amy Schumer and Keegan Michael Key. Her flourishing television and film career have included widely acclaimed appearances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as Melania Trump, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tick, Tick… Boom! and roles on Hulu’s Life & Beth, Inside Amy Schumer, as well as Gossip Girl, Younger, Nashville, Supergirl, and the highly anticipated second season of The Gilded Age. In film, Benanti starred in Netflix’s Worth opposite Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci and Amy Ryan, Here Today opposite Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish, and the upcoming Sony Pictures comedy No Hard Feelings opposite Jennifer Lawrence and Matthew Broderick. Also a book author and creator of the HBO Max special Homeschool Musical: Class of 2020 based on her viral social media movement: #sunshinesongs, Benanti released a self-titled audio album for Sony Music Masterworks and tours the world performing solo concerts alongside highly celebrated musicians and orchestras.
Most performances at Irish Rep will be Mask-Optional. All Wednesday matinees and Saturday evening performances are designated as “Masks Required”.
We recognize that some of our patrons remain cautious about being in an audience with non-masked patrons, and that some are immunocompromised. Irish Rep will maintain its rigorous cleaning procedures, as safety of our performers and audiences remains our top priority.
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