I sent a letter to my love [Hardcover]

Bernice Rubens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1975

Based on the Bernice Rubens novel of the same name, I Sent a Letter to My Love is a romantic musical by Grammy winner Melissa Manchester and dramatist Jeffrey Sweet. It is 1955 and a lonely spinster, Amy, places a correspondence ad on a whim. But her hope for romance backfires when her wheelchair-bound brother is her only respondent. A tender story of love and loneliness.

A L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Stephen Bogardus, Meagan Fay, Melissa Manchester, Megan Mullally and Paul Anthony Stewart.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'A remarkable novel' Auberon Waugh 'Perfect mastered skill . gentle and pungent style . compassion and humour to modulate her often steely-eyed observation' --Sunday Times --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

About the Author

Bernice Rubens was born in Wales. Her novels include the Booker-Prize winning THE ELECTED MEMBER and A FIVE YEAR SENTENCE, which was shortlisted for the same award. NINE LIVES was published in HB in June 2002. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 197 pages
• Publisher: W. H. Allen (1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0491018630
• ISBN-13: 978-0491018630
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,107,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Experience, September 19, 2007

By 

Alan Daniels (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Sent a Letter to My Love (L.A. Theatre Works Audio Theatre Collection) (Audio CD)

In "I Sent a Letter to My Love," story & score combine to make certain that the two CDs in this package will return many times to your CD player. Melissa Manchester succeeds here in the most difficult of song writing tasks, creating melodies that are at once complex and catchy, and the story they help tell is similarly engaging (the book here was adapted by Jeffrey Sweet from a Bernice Ruben novel by the same name). Three main characters, Amy, Stan, and Gwen, follow different paths with the same ache for love; yet this is really Amy's story. In her most particularly, we see our needs and wounds, our moments of blindness and of insight. With her we sympathize as we witness again love's ability to draw and repel, to afflict and to redeem.

These conventional, though ever-fresh, themes are explored in a somewhat unconventional plot. We meet Amy (played here by Melissa Manchester) in Maine in 1955. She has never married and has given her life to caring for her brother, Stan (Stephen Bogardus), a man crippled by childhood polio. The familiar and settled ways of their lives are altered one summer after Amy impulsively decides to place a "Lady Seeks Gentleman" correspondence ad to which Stan alone--unaware--replies. This conflict and contest unfolds as the sister and brother rent a cottage they own near their home to Gwen (Megan Mullally), a woman finding herself on her own for the first time and uncertain about her place in the world.

Ms. Manchester, Mr. Bogardus, and Ms. Mullally deliver strong, impassioned, and witty performances, supported here by the equally-impressive work of Megan Fay and Paul Anthony Stewart. The singing in this recording--which was produced by L.A. Theater Works and broadcast on NPR--is spectacular. All of the colors of Ms. Manchester's deservedly-celebrated voice are present amid Mr. Bogardus' soaring tenor and Ms. Mullally's very-satisfying mix. Though not yet a widely produced work, this recording makes it clear that "I Sent A Letter to My Love" deserves a prominent place in the musical theater repertoire.