To add fanfare and brilliance to the opening of “Love Letters,” starring stage and screen icons Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal at the Winspear Opera House, the AT&T Performing Arts Center hosted a Texas-sized red carpet event and press conference. MacGraw and O’Neal, who first captured the hearts of moviegoers with the leading rolls in the iconic film “Love Story,” have been brought together in the national tour of playwright A.R.Gurney’s “Love Letters.”
Ms. MacGraw arrived wearing a stunning black pant suit paired with classic gold jewelry and elegance. Mr. O’Neal delivered his classic and legendary charm as he greeted the press and fans. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, his wife Micki Rawlings and AT&T Performing Arts Center President and CEO Doug Curtis, greeted MacGraw and O’Neal outside the Winspear with gifts of yellow roses and a Stetson hat.
“Love Letters” will perform a limited two week engagement, March 22nd trough April 3rd at the Winspear Opera House in the Dallas Arts District. It is the story of Andrew Makepeace Ladd III (O’Neal) and Melissa Gardner (MacGraw), two young people with similar backgrounds who take very different paths in life. Despite being married and raising families with other people, having lives which should not intersect, they can’t let go of each other throughout their 50 year friendship. The production is a very simple staging of the two friends sitting on stage reading through 50 years of letters that they had exchanged. They are in different cities, and unaware of each other on stage. Very much in the style of reader’s theater, but with all the depth and emotion one would find in the most elaborately staged Broadway spectacular.
Although “Love Letters” is a notably incredible piece of work on its own merits, bringing MacGraw and O’Neal together in this two person show is proving to be a dream come true for fans of the iconic 1970 Oscar and Golden Globe treasure “Love Story.” When MacGraw and O’Neal first won the hearts of moviegoers with the line “Love never means having to say you’re sorry,” no one could have ever anticipated the perfect pair would reunite 45 years later with such perfect orchestration. Although “Love Story” and “Love Letters” have absolutely nothing in common – they are in fact two completely non-related stories – fans of “Love Story” will not be able to help but see the love and enduring affection between the characters because of the history between the actors.
MacGraw and O’Neal have remained friends through the years, and periodically worked on small projects together, but nothing of this magnitude. The “Love Letters” project was quite accidental, and a “spark of great luck” according to MacGraw. The couple were recreating the movie poster photo from “Love Story” for a photo shoot with The Hollywood Reporter. The photo was to be used in an article about famous movies and what the actors from those movies looked like now, and what they were doing.
Writer A.R. Gurney and director Gregory Mosher of “Love Letters” saw the photo and immediately approached both actors to consider a national tour of the show. Neither MacGraw or O’Neal had seen each other in over 10 years when they met in New York for the first read through. O’Neal said at the Monday afternoon press conference in Dallas that it was as if not a day had passed. The genuine real-life friendship that the two have shared over the past 45+ years has played a great part in bringing the characters and story of “Love Letters” to life with extraordinary success and rave reviews.
According to both actors, being without their beloved dogs is the only difficult part of being on a national tour. Although both have many friends in Dallas and are looking forward to enjoying time visiting and taking in the remarkable art museums the metroplex has to offer, MacGraw and O’Neal mused with the press that having their pets with them would have been a great comfort and joy.
O’Neal, who now lives in Malibu, shared that the character of Andrew reminded him very much of himself as a young man, and MacGraw reveled in the fact that her New England upbringing makes her very comfortable ‘knowing’ the character of Melissa.
Tickets for “Love Letters” begin at $30 and can be purchased online at www.attpac.org by phone in person at the AT&T box office.
