LOVE
LETTERS

Stars of stage and screen Matthew Broderick and Ellie Kemper perform the acclaimed A.R Gurney’s Love Letters in support of La Jolla Playhouse.

Love Letters, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama, is a dramatic staged reading 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 thank-you notes and summer camp postcards. Their letters continue through 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 tale unfolds in which what is implied is as revealing and meaningful as what is actually written down.

A.R. Gurney’s unique and imaginative piece premiered in 1988, and has been enjoyed everywhere from Broadway to Berlin, Scotland to Sydney, Miami to Mumbai — including the courtroom during the O.J. Simpson trial as a special performance for the sequestered jury.

Now coming to San Diego for one night only, Matthew Broderick (currently starring in the Playhouse’s Babbitt) and Ellie Kemper (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Office) join an impressive cast list of Hollywood and Broadway luminaries who have taken the stage, two by two to tell the story of Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner through these poignant letters — leaving the enduring message: you never forget your first love.

Mon, Dec 4 at 7:30pm – one night only
Mandell Weiss Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse

Funds support La Jolla Playhouse’s development of adventurous new works, artist commissions and residencies, and help to make theatre more accessible to thousands of San Diegans through our Learning and Engagement programs.

CAST & CREATORS

Matthew Broderick
Broadway: Plaza Suite, 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, Sylvia and It’s Only a Play. Off-Broadway: The Seafarer, The Closet, Evening at the Talk House, Shining City (Obie Award), Torch Song Trilogy (OCC, Villager awards), The Widow Claire and Valentine’s Day. West End: The Starry Messenger. Upcoming: Plaza Suite in the West End. Television: “Painkiller,” “Daybreak,” “The Music Man,” “’Master Harold’…and the Boys.” Films include: No Hard Feelings, Max Dugan Returns, WarGames, Ladyhawke, On Valentine’s Day, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Biloxi Blues, Glory, The Freshman, The Lion King, The Cable Guy, Infinity, Election, You Can Count on Me, Wonderful World, Margaret, Tower Heist, Rules Don’t Apply, Manchester by the Sea and To Dust.

Ellie Kemper
is an Emmy-nominated actress, comedian, and writer. She starred for five seasons on NBC’s hit sitcom The Office, and earned two Screen Actors Guild nominations for her portrayal of Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Most recently, she can be seen in the Netflix rom-com Happiness for Beginners. Other films include Bridesmaids, 21 Jump Street, Somewhere, Home Sweet Home Alone and Identity Thief. She has voiced characters in The Secret Life of Pets, The Lego Batman Movie, and Sofia the First and is the author of a collection of humor essays entitled My Squirrel Days.