Phenomenal Friendship: Tony Award-winning play Lettice & Lovage to be produced in Milwaukee this spring

Lettice & Lovage

This spring, Renaissance Theaterworks will produce Peter Shaffer’s Lettice & Lovage, an exuberant comedy that traces the unlikely friendship between two very unusual women.

Playwright Peter Shaffer, author of Equus and Amadeus, wrote Lettice & Lovage in 1987 for the acclaimed Dame Maggie Smith. After a two-year run at the Globe Theatre in London, the show moved to Broadway where it had four Tony nominations, including Best Play. Smith and her co-star Margaret Tyzack both won the Tony Award for their performance.

Lettice Douffet is the frustrated tour guide for the (painfully boring) historic Fustian House. Watching her tour-groups dwindle with boredom, Lettice begins to exaggerate the house’s dull history, adding increasingly dramatic tales of murder and intrigue, to the delight of her captivated audiences. Her success is cut short with the arrival of her boss, the formidable head of the Preservation Trust.

Renaissance Theaterworks’ production is directed by Jenny Wanasek, and features Milwaukee actors Laura Gordon & Carrie Hitchcock. Gordon was most recently seen in The Rep’s Good People, and directed Renaissance’s Amelia and Skin Tight in 2014. Hitchcock appeared most recently in Next Act’s Heresy, and will be onstage in InTandem’s upcoming production, Come Back.

“One of the sharpest, wittiest, most passionate and elegant plays of the year.” – London Sunday Express

Every ticket to Lettice and Lovage is automatically entered to win a private concert with MSO Concertmaster Frank Almond, performing on his Stradivarius violin. The concert will feature a violin & piano program lasting approximately 45 minutes, including (among other works) excerpts from Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sontata. The contest can only be entered by purchasing tickets to attend Renaissance Theaterworks’ Lettice and Lovage. The winner may invite a small group of friends to attend the exclusive performance. The concert will be hosted at the home of Justin & Susanna Mortara, on a mutually-agreed upon date.

Lettice & Lovage previews on April 10^th and runs through May 3^rd at the Broadway Theatre Center. Tickets are $36 and are available through the Broadway Theatre Center box office by calling (414) 291-7800 or online at www.r-t-w.com.  All performances are in the Studio Theatre, at the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway in the Historic Third Ward.

About Renaissance Theaterworks

For twenty-two years, Renaissance Theaterworks has been Milwaukee’s only professional theater company dedicated to improving gender parity in the arts. Our mission is to create moving theater – from classics to world premieres – with attention to women’s roles both onstage and off. Renaissance Theaterworks is a member of Theater Wisconsin and the Third Ward Arts District. Renaissance Theaterworks receives support from United Performing Arts Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, Wisconsin Arts Board, Milwaukee Arts Board, CAMPAC, The Herzfeld Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Steigleder Charitable Trust, and private donors and foundations.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.

Recent Press Releases by Renaissance Theaterworks

Renaissance Theaterworks Presents the Sixth Annual Br!NK New Play Festival

Aug 12th, 2019 by Renaissance Theaterworks

Showcasing the works of eight Midwestern women playwrights, Br!NK offers: Staged-Readings of the two 2019 Br!NK Resident Plays and the Br!NK Br!efs – a collection of never-before-seen 10-minute plays

Renaissance Theaterworks’ Opens 2018-2019 Season with a Hot-Button Comedy

Oct 2nd, 2018 by Renaissance Theaterworks

Cultures and gardens clash, turning well-intentioned neighbors into feuding enemies in Karen Zacarías’ new play, NATIVE GARDENS running October 19 – November 11, 2018 at Renaissance Theaterworks. Scenic Designer & Props Master work to maintain a living garden in the Broadway Theatre Center’s “Black Box” Studio Theatre this autumn

Fourth Annual Br!NK New Play Festival this September

Jul 18th, 2017 by Renaissance Theaterworks

Showcasing the works of 9 Midwestern women playwrights