Lettice and Lovage – Westport Country Playhouse, Westport, CT, USA

Playwright Peter Shaffer’s play, Lettice & Lovage at the Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, Connecticut, is smashingly brilliant! Directed by Mark Lamos with a fabulous foursome of a cast – Kandis Chappell, Mia Dillon, Sarah Manton, and Paxton Whitehead, – Lettice & Lovage hits all the right notes for an immensely enjoyable evening of theatre. The play runs from June 1 until June 17, 2017.

Mia Dillon (Charlotte Schoen) and
Kandis Chappell (Lettice Douffet)

British playwright Peter Shaffer (Sir Peter Levin Shaffer 1926 – 2016) wrote the play specifically for the British actress Maggie Smith (in the role of Lettice Douffet). The highly successful play premiered at the Theatre Royal, Bath, England on October 6, 1987, followed by a long run on the London stage. Mr. Shaffer revised the play in 1988, and in 1990, the play opened in New York on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 13, 1990 and ran until December 23, 1990, earning many accolades including a 1990 Tony nomination for Best Play, a 1990 Tony nomination for Best Direction of a Play, and earning Maggie Smith a coveted 1990 Tony award win for Best Actress in a Play, and for Margaret Tyzack (in the role of Lotte Schoen) a 1990 Tony Award win for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

Sarah Manton (Ms.Farmer) and Mia Dillon (Charlotte Schoen)

The Westport Country Playhouse performance of Lettice & Lovage opens the 87^th season and features the talented ensemble of Kandis Chappell, Mia Dillon, Sarah Manton, and Paxton Whitehead, all Broadway veterans who deliver the best for Peter Shaffer’s play.

Mia Dillon (Charlotte Schoen) and Kandis Chappell (Lettice Douffet)

We saw the play on Saturday, June 3, 2017, with Kandis Chappell in the lead role of Miss Lettice Douffet, a tour guide who gives tours at a historic home in England, where alas, nothing of importance ever happened. When she loses the attention of each group of tourists she leads, she decides to enliven its history with a bit of fanciful whimsy, which she does with great hilarity and theatrics. It is her deviation from the provided tour guide facts of the home that eventually leads her into trouble with the preservation society, culminating in a confrontation with her boss, Charlotte Schoen, played by Mia Dillon, with amusing results.

Kandis Chappell (Lettice Douffer)

With help from Sarah Manton as Charlotte Schoen’s timid secretary, Ms. Framer, and Paxton Whitehead as Miss Douffet’s lawyer, Mr. Bardolph, along with locals who play the "tourists" in the opening scene: Kara Hankard of Glastonbury, Travis James of Weston, Richard Mancini of Stratford, Michele S. Mueller of Rocky Hill, Robert Peterpaul of Darien, Hermon Telyan of Wilton, and Danielle Anna White of Ridgefield, the three-act play rolls gaily along from start to finish.

Paxton Whitehead (Mr. Bardolph), Mia Dillon (Charlotte Schoen),
and Kandis Chappell (Lettice Douffet)

As always, Director Mark Lamos helps elicit the best from his cast, and John Arnone’s scenic design takes the audience into the imagined world of Lettice & Lovage.

Everyone who has even been on a guided tour where the tour guide seems to "rearrange" history with "improbable" facts, will especially appreciate the gaiety and laughter of Sir Peter Schafer’s play, Lettice & Lovage; it is a "must see."

Lettice & Lovage

The Creative Team

Debra Argen, Kandis Chappell,and Mia Dillon

Performance Information:

Lettice & Lovage performance schedule is Tuesday at 7:00 pm., Wednesday at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm, Thursday and Friday at 8:00 pm., Saturday at 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm. and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Special series feature Taste of Tuesday, LGBT Night OUT, Opening Night, Sunday Symposium, Open Captions, Thursday TalkBack, Together at the Table Family Dinner, Playhouse Happy Hour, and Backstage Pass.

For information on the play or to purchase tickets, please call the box office at 203-227-4177 or call the toll-free number at 888-927-7529, or visit them on the website at www.WestportPlayhouse.org.

The Westport Country Playhouse Box Office is open during Performance Days Tuesday through Friday from 12:00 pm until 8:30 pm, Saturday from 11:00 am until 8:30 pm, Sunday from 11:00 am until 3:30 pm, and is closed on Monday. Non-Performance Days, the Box Office is open Tuesday through Friday from 12:00 pm until 6:00 pm, and is closed on Monday.

The Westport Country Playhouse named as "Theatre Company of the Year" in December 2013 by The Wall Street Journal, opened in the 1930s in a transformed 1835 cow barn, which has, and continues to attract, a "who’s who" of prominent actors. Looking at the framed posters of past shows that line the lobby walls was like entering an encyclopedia of the arts. A few of the many renowned actors who have appeared on the stage there include Ethyl Barrymore, Dorothy and Lillian Gish, Tallulah Bankhead, Gloria Swanson, Don Ameche, Hume Cronin and Jessica Tandy, Jane Fonda, Danny Aiello, Blythe Danner, Jill Clayburgh, Richard Dreyfus, Whoopi Goldberg, Liza Minnelli, Bernadette Peters, Lynn Redgrave, Gene Wilder, and Westport residents Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman.

"Westport Country Playhouse, a not-for-profit theater, serves as a cultural nexus for patrons, artists and students and is a treasured resource for the State of Connecticut. There are no boundaries to the creative thinking for future seasons or the kinds of audiences and excitement for theater that Westport Country Playhouse can build."

For information on upcoming events and other performances, please visit the website: www.WestportPlayhouse.org.

Upcoming Performances – 2017

Westport Country Playhouse
25 Powers Court
Westport, Connecticut 06880
United States
Box Office: +1-203-227-4177
Toll-Free: +1-888-927-7529
Fax: +1-203-454-3239
Box Office: +1-203-227-4177
Website: www.WestportPlayhouse.org
Facebook: www.Facebook/WestportCountryPlayhouse

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