The End of the Affair: Starry Revival of A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters Sets Early Closing Date on Broadway

A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters will shutter prematurely at Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre on December 14. Pairs of rotating stars, including Anjelica Huston and Martin Sheen, had previously been announced for the production through February 15, 2015. At time of closing the show will have played 6 preview and 95 regular performances.

Love Letters opened on September 18 starring Brian Dennehy and Mia Farrow. Carol Burnett joined Dennehy on October 11, with their run followed by the current stars, Alan Alda and Candice Bergen, who stepped into the production on November 9. Along with Huston and Sheen, Stacy Keach and Diana Rigg had also been set to star in the show.

Directed by Gregory Mosher, Love Letters is a funny and emotional portrait about the powerful connection of love. Two friends, rebellious Melissa Gardner and straight-arrow Andrew Makepeace Ladd III have exchanged notes, cards and letters with each other for over 50 years. From second grade, through summer vacations, to college, and well into adulthood, they have spent a lifetime discussing their hopes and ambitions, dreams and disappointments, and victories and defeats. But long after the letters are done, the real question remains: Have they made the right choices or is the love of their life only a letter away?

Love Letters originally opened off-Broadway in March 1989, starring Kathleen Turner and John Rubinstein. The play changed its cast every week and other notable names that appeared in that incarnation included Victor Garber, Julie Harris, Christopher Reeve and Christopher Walken. The show transferred to Broadway in October of that year, with Lynn Redgrave, John Clark, Stockard Channing and more appearing in the production.

The previously announced It Shoulda Been You will begin performances at the Brooks Atkinson on March 17.