Dinner and a Show at Latchis 4 to Benefit Latchis Restoration Project
BRATTLEBORO, VT—The Latchis Event Committee announces the second in a series of fundraising events to benefit the Latchis Restoration Project—a deliciously romantic dinner/theater offering set in the atmosphere of a posh New York City Supper Club.
A.R. Gurney’s smash Broadway hit “Love Letters” will be performed at Latchis 4 on Friday and Saturday evenings March 14 and 15 and Sunday matinee on March 16. Tickets--$75 each for the evening performances and $55 each for the Sunday matinee--are available at Brattleborotix.com and at the front desk of the Latchis Hotel. For the evening performances, the doors will open at 6:30 p.m., with dinner served at 7:00 p.m. and the show at 8:00 p.m. For the Sunday matinee, the doors will open at 1:00 p.m., with brunch served at 1:30 p.m., followed by the show at 2:30 p.m.
“We had such success with the 'Party of the Decades' by transforming the space into a cabaret from an earlier era—Rick’s Café of Casablanca fame—we’re going to do something similar for ‘Love Letters,’” said Jim Maxwell, board member. “In fact, the inspiration for the dinner/theater idea happened the night of the party.”
Maxwell continued, “Not only will those attending be able to enjoy a fun atmosphere and delicious meal prepared by Thirty-9 Main Restaurant; they'll also see a critically acclaimed play after dinner.” Seats are limited, Maxwell notes, so parties wishing to attend together should make reservations right away to ensure adjacent seating. There will be two couples to a table.
An elegant evening menu will include mixed green salad with blue cheese and champagne vinaigrette dressing; beef and wild mushroom stroganoff accompanied by buttered egg noodles; a vegetarian option of swiss chard and caramelized onion lasagna; and a baby beet and haricot vert sauté (translation—green beans with a French kick!). Chocolate espresso torte and coffee will be served for dessert. Red and white organic wine will be available.
Also enticing, the Sunday brunch menu includes an orange juice & champagne mimosa; seasonal fruit salad with citrus and poppy seed dressing; mixed seafood salad; strata of sausage and peppers; and gruyere cheese and coffee.
Dear Melissa, … Dear Andy, … “Love Letters” tells the story of two people who’ve known each other from grade school—the successful but staid lawyer, Andrew Makepeace Ladd III (Larry Bramble), and the rebellious and unpredictable artist, Melissa Gardner (Beverly Miller). Their lives are poignantly revealed on an unadorned stage through an exchange of letters—50 years of hopes and ambitions, defeats and accomplishments. “Few [plays] have been tinier, or more beautiful than this tender sketch of the bond between two people who cannot live with, or without, each other” (Time). A bittersweet play, only at the end do viewers realize just how much Melissa and Andy mean to one another, spiritually so close as only true lovers can be.
Initially produced at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven in 1989, “Love Letters” also opened that same year at the off-Broadway theater the Promenade in New York City. Local actors Larry Bramble and Beverly Miller join scores of not-so-famous and very famous "Love Letters" couples who have sat side by side reading the life-long, intimate correspondence between the two soul mates— Blythe Danner, William Hurt, Judith Ivey, Jason Robards, Elaine Stritch, Kathleen Turner, John Rubinstein, Christopher Walken and dozens more. Recently, Elizabeth Taylor and James Earl Jones performed the piece as a benefit at Paramount Studios in Hollywood to rave reviews.
Brattleboro Arts Initiative (BAI) and Actors Theater Playhouse are the producers and Larry Bramble is the director.