Grodin, Kitt, Newman, Woodward to Read Love Poems at Westport Benefit

Charles Grodin, Eartha Kitt, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and other stars will read classic, contemporary, and humorous love poems in a special program titled Come Be My Love…Love Spoken Here, to be presented on Saturday February 10 at 8pm at the Westport Country Playhouse. Additional participants in the event will be announced at a later date.

Among the authors whose love poems will be read are Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, e.e. cummings, Dorothy Parker, William Shakespeare, Robert Frost, Ogden Nash, Langston Hughes, Tennessee Williams, and Noël Coward.

Woodward is artistic director emeritus of the theater, where she has directed productions of such plays as The Member of the Wedding, The Constant Wife, and Three Days of Rain. She has appeared on stage at the Playhouse in Love Letters and Ancestral Voices alongside Newman, her husband of 49 years; he has additionally performed there in Trumbo and in a 2002 revival of Our Town that later transferred to Broadway and was filmed for Showtime and PBS.

Among Grodin’s Broadway credits are Tchin-Tchin, Lovers and Other Strangers, Thieves, and Same Time Next Year. Kitt is a two-time Tony Award nominee for Timbuktu! and The Wild Party; she has also appeared on Broadway in such shows as New Faces of 1952, Shinbone Alley, and the 2003 revival of Nine.

A champagne and dessert reception will follow the February 10 performance, proceeds of which will support the Playhouse’s educational programming. Tickets are priced at $175 and $300; call 203-227-4177 for information.