Theater Reviews

Oct 27, 1999 - "Love Letters" Not So Much a Play as a Showcase for Actors

By Jack Neal

A.R. Gurney's 1988 play, "Love Letters," is more an exercise for actors and words than a legitimate play. With two fine performances (it's a two actor play), "Love Letters" - as it's been directed here by Michael Moore - is an excellent re-creation of the show's Broadway presentation.

"Love Letters" is the story of Andrew Makepeace Ladd III (Michael Moore) and Melissa Gardner (Darlanne Fluegel) who meet in second grade, fall in love, go off to different boarding schools and eventually marry others yet keep yearning for one another. Through it all they exchange letters, letters and more letters. To mold into a superb play, the letters must say something more than people would normally say extemporaneously. Letters being written by people with brilliant minds, who can put commentaries on paper that are more exquisitely phrased than mere off-hand oral utterances, would help.

That this does not happen, or at least not happen enough, is "Love Letter's" greatest failing. That's not to suggest that playwright Gurney is anything less than a pro at the written word. His Melissa is a well-etched symbol of the poor-little-rich-girl-who-falls-on-boozy- times we've recognized in life and wondered how it could happen. His Andy is a smartly contrived ultra WASP we've watched reach the heights of success as we struggle to fathom why he was successful in any big way at all.

Nor does the play's plot as it unfolds make much sense in the laws-of-probability department. For two people so intent on remaining in touch, the lack of synchronization in their lives is more a playwright's technique for creating drama than logical reality. In short, Gurney's characters are dictated by the play's form, rather than the play's form being dictated by the needs of its characters. For all its charming blend of gaiety and gravity, then, "Love Letters" is merely a pleasant evening in the theater not a particularly moving one.

What is evident and deeply appreciated in this presentation is the care which has been lavished on the production to make it special. The set, designed by Debra Deming - two nicely appointed desks on either side of the stage set amidst bookcases, lamps and plants from which each actor works - is quite attractive. A screen is at center stage provides a projected collage of Melissa's and Andy's lifetimes of experiences. David Newman's first-rate lighting pulls it all together and gives the production its focus and dramatic look.

Much like uninterrupted movements of a symphony, jazz is used to separate Acts One and Two. "Summertime" and "When a Man Loves a Woman" were given splendid treatments by on-stage pianist Jeffrey Neiman and strolling (through the audience) saxophonist Joel Edwards. It's obvious from what was played and the rapturous way it was played what the music was aiming for. That the music succeeded only slightly as an intregal part of the play does not make it any less pleasureable as something to be enjoyed for itself. Tom Gordon's excellent sound design gives the music a rich, fullbodied sound and the actor's words clarity.

"Love Letters" wouldn't work, of course, without indelible performances that give Gurney's words illusions of depth beyond face value. Indelible performances are what Gurney's words are getting.

As Andy, Michael Moore is a thoroughly engaging writer and reader of letters. Mr. Moore's characterization, spred as it is over decades, is greatly helped by his neither-young-nor-old good looks. This lends a plausibility to the passage of time that would otherwise be more noticeably amiss. As Melissa, Darlanne Fluegel is nothing less than wonderful. With her desperation, her dashed hopes, her bitchy sense of humor, Miss Fluegel covers a life of letters, fun and pain as well as Gurney's script allows.

Fluegel and Moore have managed to overcome the staginess of "Love Letters" and convey the feelings of two people who have much to say to each other, but who never quite get what they want to say said in the right way at the right time.

"Love Letters" plays Mondays at 7:30 p.m. In the Eldorado Hotel/Casino Show Room, 345 North Virginia Street, Reno. For information call 775-786-5700