Mia Farrow and Brian Dennehy Talk LOVE LETTERS on Opening Night!

hello I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway world AR gurn's love letters is back on Broadway the Beloved twers play about a man and a woman is told through a series of Love Letters notes and postcards kicking off the star studded rotating cast is Mia Farrow and Brian Dene directed by Gregory moer and I caught up with them on opening night hi I saw you Tuesday night I want to thank you for one of the most iridescent performances and watching you too met the world you want tell you as we get started thank you are we good it's so great to have you back how does it feel if be back on the stage again and be back on Broadway well with this play and with Brian you know I I I really I'm thinking tonight I'm just counting my lucky stars cuz I get distracted and I do a lot of other things and I don't think about acting and I totally forget that I'm an actress and then I come in and I do this and something about this play that I burrowed into and work and effort it's a deep experience each night and there's something a place worth going to even though it's painful and to bring an audience so far from the usual Broadway um no dances no songs no lights no action just two actors sitting at a table reading this thing you wouldn't think people would want to come and yet to to feel a whole house full of people come down to that little intense place where it's two actors just reading really I mean it sounds boring but it draws people in and I didn't really know cuz I I how could you know you know it's such a perfect play all told through the letters tell me what you love you tell Mr Oh yes totally I've seen as many many times as play what was it like for you reading it and then saying his words um reading it I saw that it that it was beautiful and and saying them um it meant going somewhere you know and starting the rehearsals I wasn't really sure where how I was going you know I just didn't know and it it's you've seen the place so you know where it goes and working with Brian cuz you worked together right we did something else together yeah and I I it's having to work with heaven and so fun even just sitting in his dressing room like can I have an Al toid now sitting munching he's like so calm on the phone you know comes in in his shorts and know just so cute such a nice person and then comes this Powerhouse actor and I feel so connected to him we we already thinking of like we got to take this on the road we got to go to Dublin you know Gregory moer has delicately directed this with such a fine touch what was it like working with him he's wonderful you know he's so you ask him a question he saying let me think let me think apparently he takes walks and things like that then I'll get an email like a love letter saying I've been thinking about this and I think it could go I'm not sure but what do you think about this our emails have become you know for me extraordinary I'm going to keep them all CU I love the How Deeply he thinks it how much he trusts me and just go I hate the word overused Journey but it has been a trip you know my final question for you is what are you enjoying the most about being back on stage again all of it the good play the Good partner to do it with the great Gregory moer to have you know s watching over us and then the audience so focused on these just the Simplicity of this thing conrat you know that's you know it's Heaven welcome back so nice to see you Mia a real pleasure so you should know that I'm even richer now than when you said I was rich thanks to poor Granny I plan to drive up to the front gate of Calhoun College in my new red Chrysler convertible and sit there Stark naked honking my horn and drinking champagne and flashing at all the Freshman I had seen this many many times first off Broadway the first time you are on Broad Broadway and I saw it again Tuesday night and thank you I am thrilled to have this playback how do you feel tonight I feel the same way you do I second your motion no I do I was very impressed and and fascinated in fact I saw it two nights ago and I hadn't seen it several years well I'd seen it no I'd seen it about two months ago up in in Connecticut where I live but so to see it two nights ago I couldn't wait to get back and see it again because the cast is so good good and so original and fresh in the way they approached the the material no cuz you've seen so many people do this I mean Mia and Brian were gorgeous the other night what they meant to watching them read your words yeah well that that's that's the way I felt uh I it was very exciting to be performed he my hear my lines spoken by two consumate actors with no help they sit at a table and read and I hope that doesn't send any send any it's what happens it's about acting and and and investing yourself in words is that's that's what the play is about and I thought this this particular cast did that beautifully were you around a lot during rehearsal with Gregory moer tell me no I was not I Gregory moer I wanted to give him this Freedom John tillinger who has directed it for years very good friend of mine uh for various reasons couldn't do this and Gregory moer I thought well I like him we've talked about it let him do it and and he did it yeah take me back to the beginning cuz I saw it originally Off Broadway how this all came about for you as a play well I I was just telling somebody else I wrote it I thought I was writing a novel and a novel based on letters we sent it to the New Yorker and New Yorker sent it back said we don't publish plays so gil Gilbert Parker who was my agent said uh let's try it as the play I had to give a speech at the New York Public Library so I called up the library and said instead of giving that speech they sort of assigned the title I said uh I've got a new play and I called my friend howand Taylor who flew East I mean flew East from Hollywood to do it I sent her the script she Saidi come here and do it with you so she we she and I tried it out and it seemed to work as a play but it took time audiences I mean we did it we then we did it again for Charlie Kimbro and Holland Taylor did it for playwrights Horizons but Andre didn't see much future in it Arvin Brown at the longor ultimately picked it up and ran with a ball yeah it's been done it's been translated in so many different languages around the world that's right why do you think it works so well what is why story I think it's a good story I I the French I I I know enough French to know they had to change certain things it's a different story in a sense but uh I I think it must have some kind of universal appeal of the restrained rather intellectual male versus the passionate um artistic woman yeah my final question is what's the biggest thrill for you with having this play back on Broadway serious they're many Thrills seeing a good cast do my work see hearing this audience responds so sympathetically and and uh totally to the play uh I haven't had many plays on Broadway and the ones that have been on Broadway haven't lasted very long I hope this one lasts longer cuz it's been a great pleasure seeing it would you consider coming to the Yale Dartmouth game Saturday October 28th I'll be there damn I'm sorry Melissa I have to cancel my parents have decided to visit that weekend and they come first according to them welcome back to Broadway how do you feel Brian I feel good it's it's a nice show it's a good show she's amazing the audience likes it you know and uh as far as I know the checks will clear so it's great it's fun to be fun to be fun to be doing what I do and this is a nice play what do you love about this play because you've done this before right briefly we mostly uh uh benefits because the kind of thing that usually done in benefits this is the first time I've really worked on it especially with somebody like her and uh you realize just how great a piece of writing it is it depends totally upon the writing and um the of it is is in the words and he wrote the words and you just have to Sam him and stay the hell out of the way yeah and it works so it's a privilege to work with stuff like this and to work with somebody like her you've worked together before talk about work with we did the exonerated I guess someplace I can't remember I don't remember a hell of a lot these days I'm at that age now I check my fly all the time so um so what is it like working with her there's just the two of you up there oh she's great she's powerful she's supportive and bright and funny and God knows what she's beautiful and uh so it's great it's a a pleasure no ego no nothing getting in the way all you know no no drama no melodrama just a person a real person a hell of an actress a great lady and working with Gregory moer this is so delicately directed what that whole process was like working with him yeah he's great he's he directed exactly the way he needed to which was just enough what you needed to have what you needed to be uh reminded or pointed out to you he was there with it terrific director really good what are you enjoying the most about being back on Broadway and being in this play well I don't know I got to you know you got to settle down and I'll let it happen we've been scrambling for the last weeks and now maybe we'll just get to relax and do the play and then you'll find out you know just uh how amusing and how interesting it can be so that's what I'm looking forward to