84 CHARING CROSS ROAD
In 1949, Helene Hanff, a single woman paying her rent on an apartment in a New York brownstone by proofreading and writing the occasional television script, comes across an ad in the Saturday Review of Literature. Prompted by the ad, she sends off a letter to Marks & Co., antiquarian booksellers at 84 Charing Cross Road in London, asking if they can provide inexpensive copies of any of a long list of books she wants to own. Frank Doel replies on behalf of Marks & Co., enclosing a very proper note along with the Robert Louis Stevenson. Thus begins a 20-year correspondence that ranges over such diverse subjects as war-time rationing, the sermons of John Donne, how to make Yorkshire Pudding, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. If you've got a passion for literature or a soft spot for merrie olde England, if you're a sucker for a hopeless romance, this play will be just your cup of tea.
84 CHARING CROSS ROAD will be performed at the Off-Broadstreet Dessert Theatre, 5 S. Greenwood Avenue, Hopewell, NJ 08525. The cast includes Catherine Rowe as Helene Hanff and Tom Stevenson as Frank Doel, with John Anastasio, Lauren Brader and Jennifer East as the denizens of the bookshop. Performance dates are April 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30 and May 1, 6 and 7, 2005. Doors open at 7:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, 1:30 on Sundays for dessert and coffee. Performances begin at 8:00 (Fridays & Saturdays) and 2:30 (Sundays). The ticket price ($23.75 Fridays & Sundays, $25.25 Saturdays) includes the gourmet dessert and coffee, plus the performance. There is a special senior rate of $22.00 for Sunday matinees only. Reservations and additional information can be obtained by calling the Off-Broadstreet Theatre box office at 609-466-2766.
posted by Catherine Rowe @ 7:40 AM
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'84 Charing Cross Road'
By: Stuart Duncan, TimeOFF 04/06/2005
Off-Broadstreet Theatre revives Helene Hanff's play, based on correspondence between a New York author and the staff of a London bookstore.
It's rather sad that the art of letter writing seems to have been neglected amidst the rush to e-mail and cell phones. There exists a small but significant genre of stage plays based essentially on the exchange of personal letters. A.R. Gurney's Love Letters is perhaps the best known, but just recently George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick presented Address Unknown, written almost seven decades ago, but still vibrant. And now, Off-Broadstreet Theatre in Hopewell brings us Helene Hanff's 84 Charing Cross Road.
The work appeared first in 1970 as a novelette, and subsequently turned into a BBC television production in 1975. A stage play adapted by James Roose-Evans came six years later, and finally a Hollywood film was made in 1986, starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. The novel covered several decades of correspondence between a New York-based author (Ms. Hanff) and the staff of a real-life bookstore in London. The tale begins in the years right after World War II, when the city was gripped by food rationing and bomb craters had not yet been filled. Ms. Hanff sees a small ad in The Saturday Review for a London store specializing in used books. She loves books, but cannot afford expensive ones. In that spirit, she sends the store, Marks & Co., a want list, and soon is delighted to receive a package of good, cheap, readable editions. Thus begins a correspondence with Frank Doel (on behalf of Marks & Co.) that lasts for years, without the two ever meeting. Like all works of the genre, the audience is left to fill in the details of the unexpressed motivations of the characters by what they put on paper, but here the author provides us with a few clues: "I'm not afraid of traveling — I'm afraid of arriving." Or: "Nothing is cheap any more — it's reasonable. Or 'sensibly priced.'"
The play has fewer characters than the film, and director Bob Thick has cast superbly. Helene Hanff is played by Catherine Rowe, with a delightful blend of New York toughness and compassion. Tom Stevenson has his best role in years as Frank Doel, a dedicated company man with a clear understanding that duty can be tempered by affection. Lauren Brader turns the tiny role of Cecily, one of the shelf-stockers, into a memorable one with a smile that radiates. John Anastasio returns after too many years away to play William Humphries, another shelf-stocker. Jennifer East plays a rather mousy third stocker, Megan Wells, nicely. And, late in the show, Billy Brown makes a stage debut as a new hire, when some of the regulars have moved on.
Incidentally, Helene Hanff had a most successful career with television scripts (30 of them for Hallmark Hall of Fame plus a stint with The Adventures of Ellery Queen), but her novelette was turned down by more than 50 publishers before a small and obscure firm picked it up.
One of the critics of the original play suggested: "this is a show for anyone who loves books. Or loves London." I'll go a bit farther — this is a show for anyone who enjoys a charming evening.
84 Charing Cross Road continues at Off-Broadstreet Theatre, 5 S. Greenwood Ave., Hopewell, through May 7. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2:30 p.m.; doors open one hour before performance time for desserts and beverages. Tickets cost $23.75 Fri., Sun.; $25.25 Sat. For information, call (609) 466-2766.
©PACKETONLINE News Classifieds Entertainment Business - Princeton and Central New Jersey 2005
From The Times, Trenton, NJ
`Charing Cross' heartwarming, positive and uplifting
Tuesday, April 05, 2005 - By MICHAEL KOWNACKY
When writer Helene Hanff died in 1997, America lost a truly unique voice in popular literature. Although she wrote scripts for television programs such as "Ellery Queen," Hanff is most noted for one of her seven short books, "84, Charing Cross Road." The stage version of that memoir is getting a heartwarming production at the Off-Broadstreet Theatre through May 7.
Hanff loved books, especially books with histories. She found it exciting to see notations made by previous readers and experience the "comradly sense of turning pages someone else has read." In her writing, her appreciation and excitement are evident, and it is much to the credit of James Roose-Evans who adapted her novel for the stage that her enthusiasm and joy are still exuberantly in place.
"84, Charing Cross Road" covers the years between 1949 and 1971 in letters between Hanff (Catherine Rowe) and Frank Doel (Tom Stevenson) who is the manager of the Marks & Co. bookstore located at that address in the heart of bustling London. Hanff, only slightly joking, writes that it's much closer for her to order books from London in the comfort of her room rather than walking the 20 blocks to midtown Manhattan to get something made out of cardboard and cheap paper. Doel does his best to get Hanff the often-archaic books she desires. In the process, the two become close, caring friends who share a life through their letters.
The script is the winner in this production. It's been some time since I've read Hanff's book or seen the play or film (starring Ann Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins) based upon it, and I forgot the wonder and joy she shares as each new book arrives. Then too, there's the glorious bile and grousing with which Hanff castigates Doel when he inadvertently sends something not to her liking.
There is nothing but mutual admiration between these people in this heartwarming and poignant story. The fact that it's a true story makes it all the more wonderful.
Rowe does an excellent job of capturing Hanff's highs, lows and acerbic wit most of the evening. Hers is a large role that she'll surely grow into even more as the show's run progresses. Tom Stevenson is a good foil for Rowe and does a generally fine job with the laid-back Doel. He also will find nuances and different levels in his portrayal as he becomes more comfortable with his somewhat distant character.
The remainder of the cast - Lauren K. Brader, Jennifer East, John Anastasio and Billy Brown - do their best with their roles as the staff of the bookstore who aren't much more than window-dressing. Brader is charming as Cecily Farr, a worker who is the first to go against store policy when she writes to Hanff to thank her for her gifts. Since Britain is still dealing with rationing as a result of the recent war, Hanff sends, via Denmark, care packages welcomed with open arms by her new friends at Marks & Co.
"84, Charing Cross Road" is not just about a love for books and reading; it's also about a love for humanity. Hanff, a champion of readers everywhere, has given us some wonderful people to take into our lives for too short a while.
While "84, Charing Cross Road" does not end happily, and Helene, Frank and even the storefront are all gone, the material is positive and uplifting which makes up for any shortcomings this production may have.
84, Charing Cross Road - through May 7, Off-Broadstreet Theatre, 5 S. Greenwood Ave., Hopewell Borough, 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Dessert one hour prior to curtain, $23.75-$25.25. (609) 466-2766.
REVIEW POSTED ON THE INTERNET (NJTHEATER.COM) BY PAUL CICCHETTI
5/2/2005
I was privileged to balance a too sweet dessert last weekend with a bracing performance by the cast of "84 Charing Cross Road," which had more of the acerbic complexity of a fresh lime margherita made with Grande Marnier and Stoly than you usually find in dessert theaters.
“84 Charing Cross Road” is a problematic play. Not much action, not a totally satisfying ending. The attraction here is the creation of character by the physicalization of the actions implicit in letters by the actors playing Ms Helene Hanft and Frank Doel. Ms Hanft writes to a bookstore in London following an ad in a magazine and continues to develop the correspondence over more than twenty years. Who is Ms. Hanft? Imagine that Ma Kettle read at a graduate school level. Throw in enough Yentl to assure a well-made chicken soup for the soul and, perhaps, just a touch of Martha (ala Virginia Woolf), to insure a petulant alcoholic side. Ms Hanft is a study in opposites: a raging intellectual with no real education who writes popular TV shows, a straightforward person with a good helping of self-serving ulteriority, a person who loves people who yet avoids them and shows no sign of even missing the intimate relationship nowhere present in her life, a lover of books who can pass final judgment on them without compunction and throw them in the garbage. And all this and more brought to vivid, natural and seemingly effortless life by Catherine Rowe Pherson in one of the complex character performances that have become her signature. It is worth adding that, although the play contains technical difficulties for an actor worthy of Shakespeare or high farce, they go unnoticed until focused on because of the seamless, and invisible technique we have come to expect from Ms Rowe-Pherson. Not only does she deliver readings of letters to a person not there almost as if he is, that is, treading with balletic agility the fine line of showing us his presence but only in her imagination, but she does so while continually holding, tossing, flipping, brandishing, shelving, unpacking, referencing, fondling, describing and discarding a virtual library of books, each of which, if you think about it, must exactly correspond to the same book as discussed and sometimes displayed in the OTHER, transatlantic scene, and making vivid an emotional relationship both to the book and to the transatlantic correspondent that is at the same time both powerful and oblique. She is an Anglophile who makes fast friends with the bookstore crowd by sending foodstuffs hard to find in post-war London and by a self-disclosing style, which the reserved English bookstore manager cannot help but find disarming. I thought it was a tribute to Ms Pherson’s performance that it made me wonder how much of this was a means for Helene of getting better service. Despite her easy, voluble, self-disclosing style, we never really find out what motivates Helene, but, the point is, we want to know. We are made curious by the fullness of personhood that Ms Pherson projects to know her better and never to make the mistake of being too sure or of taking her motivation for granted. Although she repeatedly promises to visit England, she continually makes choices that keep her in NY. Later, when she moves to a nicer apartment, nicely symbolized by the addition of another room, we see in that room, a whole new side to her personality. The room is contrastingly luxuriant and dark in a French style, and she drapes herself on the couch and develops a louche, almost dark quality as, in a drunken reverie, she recounts trying to find a passage from John Donne in four different editions. Although there is very little in the content to support it, Catherine delivers it, physicalizes it in a way that hints at the alcoholism and fantasy addiction that have circumscribed her life. She avows she is a fan of “you are there” books, but she never actually goes anywhere. This is a very interesting woman and Ms. Pherson explores every facet. It is an amazing thing to watch the acting process work, to see an actress use herself simply in the service of being someone else and have it work so seamlessly that it totally convinces you that you are seeing another person. Those of us privileged to know Catherine from this forum have learned a few things about her over the years. Ms Pherson is a known booklover (but not of Ms Hanft’s taste or intellectual pretensions), a known tease (but not of Ms Hanft’s aggressive verbal style), known to be empathic and generous (but not towards transatlantic strangers) and known to enjoy time alone (but not an isolationist or an addict). And she takes all these personal qualities and traits and makes a character totally other than herself totally her own.
This is not to denigrate the more straightforward performance of Tom Stevenson as Mr. Doel, the bookseller. His role is embedded in the context of a busy shop and his demeanor is somewhat constrained by the business façade and the heavy burden of having to file his letters for business posterity, a pose which he finally drops two-thirds of the way through the play after being caught time and again by his shop mates “letting down the side”. He does a nice job of letting his personal feelings peek out, showing an almost childlike vulnerability behind the mask. Although there was an occasional lapse, Mr. Stevenson’s British accent was serviceable and believable enough to serve the audience’s emotional involvement, and his aging was done with subtlety and grace, yet with enough continuity and subliminal force for my companion to anticipate his final exit.
English reserve is not a constraint that the character of young Cecily Farr (played perkily by Lauren K. Brader) finds obligatory. She takes the part of the busybody confidant from the outset and begins writing to Helene on her own. In fact, one of the little jokes is that, at one point, almost everyone is corresponding with Ms Hanft without the others knowing. Although she did a fine job creating a small role, Ms Brader’s accent and delivery needed some work. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I could not make out half of what she said. Perhaps it was just a problem with volume (I was at the back row of tables), but I have a feeling it had more to do with voice placement and vowel definition. Ms Jennifer East playing a recognizable “faraway dreamer” working in a bookstore, the kind of mousy, Walter Mitty-like person who deals with a boring life by imagining herself elsewhere, and, after she follows her dream, her own replacement, writes thank you notes for the supplies of hard to find foodstuffs that Helene sends. John Anastasio, playing the older lifetime company man, comfortable and secure in his job, politely and restrainedly drops a cautious line, now and then. Kevin Crognale, making his debut at Off-Broadstreet playing Thomas Nahrwold, the next generation lifetime-clerk-in-training, projected a nice quality of henpecked naivete mixed with youthful insouciance.
The set was nicely done, if a bit sparse on books for a used bookstore and could have benefited from a fuller realization of a street scene through the shop front window. Ms Hanft’s small apartment was very small, but, as usual, Ms Pherson made it serve her character by making it seem even smaller with large gestures, as if trying to break free through her imagination. As she placed each book in her intellectual firmament, she kept reaching out, widening her stance as if to bestride her small world like a colossus. The lighting was serviceable, if simple and I was impressed with the use of stereo effect to move the airplane sound in the direction of stage left, the direction presumed toward England to North American audiences. It made me wonder if the staging would be reversed in a production done in, say, India.
This is a nice little play and a great characterization by Ms Pherson. If you liked “Love Letters” and you are a fan of good acting, you should see it. You have next Friday and Saturday, May 6th and 7th, if it is not sold out.
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