THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 16, 1995 TAG: 9504140050
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
LATER THIS MONTH, early Hollywood star Van Johnson will share the limelight at the Wells Theater with Betsy Palmer, panelist in the '50s on the television game show ``What's My Line?''
In Norfolk, Palmer certainly won't need a line cue, unless she forgets her glasses. Because Palmer and Johnson will spend their entire time on stage seated at desks, reading letters to each other.
The occasion is ``Love Letters,'' the A. R. Gurney play that brought sold-out houses for the Virginia Stage Company two years ago during a brief run featuring Charlton Heston and his wife, Lydia.
The show's popularity encouraged Virginia Stage officials to again seek production rights, which only recently were made available, said Charlie Hensley, VSC's artistic director.
Johnson and Palmer, who perform in ``Love Letters'' April 25 to 30, are among three celebrity couples cast for one week each. Also scheduled are Barbara McNair and Paul Winfield (May 2 to 7) and Ron Leibman and Jessica Walter (May 9 to 14).
Each couple represents a different era in performance history. Johnson has logged five decades in films (``The Last Time I Saw Paris'') and on Broadway (``La Cage Aux Folles''). Besides racking up television credits on shows like ``Knots Landing,'' Palmer has acted in films, including the role of Jason's mom in ``Friday the 13th.''
McNair, a singer and an actress, has appeared on Broadway (``The Pajama Game'') and on television in such shows as ``Mission Impossible'' and ``The Jeffersons.'' Her films include ``They Call Me Mr. Tibbs'' with Sidney Poitier. Winfield has extensive credits in theater, film and television, from ``Richard III'' at Lincoln Center to the film ``Sounder.''
A Broadway veteran, Liebman won the 1993 Tony and Drama Desk awards for best actor as Roy Cohn in ``Angels in America.'' He and Walter, his wife, performed together in Los Angeles in ``Rumors'' and ``Tartuffe.'' His film roles include the union organizer in ``Norma Rae.'' Walter played the crazed woman in ``Play Misty for Me.''
The VSC hired Ted Weiant to direct ``Love Letters.'' He has directed more than 60 celebrity couples in the show across the nation.
This bittersweet play, both humorous and poignant, opens in 1937. Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III are in second grade. One grows up to be an angst-filled artist; the other becomes a United States senator.
Their paths are so different, yet they continue to write to one another. A kind of love persists between them, a lifetime of vague longing. by CNB