TV and film stars Tony Shalhoub and Brooke Adams send theater “Love Letters”

Married couple Tony Shalhoub and Brooke Adams have each had careers full of resounding TV and film triumphs. While Adams became a household name in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s with movies such as Days of Heaven, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Dead Zone, Shalhoub took home three Emmy Awards for his role in the TV comedy Monk and another for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Theater, though, remains their greatest love. 

The two met while performing in The Heidi Chronicles on Broadway in 1990 and became a couple a few years later, working together occasionally afterward. Now, they are reuniting for a special benefit performance of A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters on February 21 at Georgia Ensemble Theatre to help the playhouse finish its 30th anniversary season. Told through correspondence, it’s the story of Andy and Melissa, who become friends in elementary school and remain in each other’s lives.

Susan Shalhoub Larkin, Tony’s sister and a veteran Atlanta-based actress, is a founding member of the Roswell playhouse. When producing artistic director and co-founder Anita Farley reached out to Larkin, told her the company was struggling and asked if she’d be willing to check if Adams and Shalhoub could come down for an event, the two were receptive.  

Performing in Love Letters is not new for the pair. Yet, Shalhoub sees the play from a different perspective now. “We’ve done it a number of times before but it’s been 15 to 20 odd years,” says Shalhoub. “As we were reading it and starting to rehearse, for me, it’s changed a lot. I am seeing things in it I did not see before. Things are hitting me in different ways. It’s a tribute to the timeless writing. Now that we are older and our children are grown, it has a different feeling. It changes with the times and with the ages of the people reading it.” 

Adams, too, has always been taken by the nature of the piece. “The very fact of writing letters is such a romantic notion and such a wonderful and no-longer-used thing,” says Adams. “It works as a piece that you read, as opposed to most plays that don’t really work that way. This one is its best self as a reading, and that makes it fun to do. It feels like a real performance.” 

Shalhoub started early in the industry. Sister Susan recruited him into his first play when he was 6 and she was 16, a high-school production of The King and I.

Also at the age of 6, Adams started working in her father’s summer theater in Michigan. She and her sister would spend their days watching rehearsals, and even when their parents would suggest they go outside and do something else, all they could think about was doing a play. “We would do it on the side of a road and get captive audiences by stringing rope across it.” 

The magic of a live theatrical performance has always captivated Adams. “It’s the best. I don’t really act anymore, but if I were going to, it would be in theater. Movies and TV are fun for the thrill of seeing them later and having a lasting quality, but theater is so immediate. As an actor, you are so much more in control. Once you are doing a play and are feeling it and are dug in, you’re in charge.” 

With her first two films — Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven and Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, both from 1978 — Adams quickly became a high-profile actress. 

“Days was my first film; it was all of our first films. We were incredibly insecure, but we knew it was going to be some sort of a classic.” The movie was made inexpensively, only shot at the magic hour. Adams shared a trailer with co-stars Linda Manz, Sam Shepard and Richard Gere and they’d sit all day long and — as the sun was going to one half of the sky — they’d run out and film whatever they could.

In 1992, however, Adams decided to stop acting full-time. As Adams and Shalhoub were watching her film Gas Food Lodging, Shalhoub proposed to her during the credits. “We had two daughters and somehow the whole notion of being the center of your universe didn’t seem appropriate anymore. It didn’t feel right to me. I wanted to be a mother more than I wanted to be an actress. Then Tony took off like crazy so I didn’t have to work, which was lovely. Then I started painting.” 

Still, there have been some isolated gigs for Adams, including some plays with her husband, several episodes of Monk and the 2002 movie Made-Up. 

Shalhoub has appeared in dozens of films, but 1996’s Big Night remains a career highlight. “That’s how I met Stanley (Tucci). Oliver Platt was a producer. Allison Janney also [made a mark] in it. I had never had a role like that in a film, where I was called on to speak Italian, speak with a giant accent and look like I knew what I was doing as a chef in the kitchen. I saw it a few years ago and I was amazed at how well it holds up. The best part was I got to work with an idol of mine — Ian Holm. I was in awe of him as a student and sharing scenes with him — him being so gracious and supportive was huge.”  

Nothing prepared Shalhoub for the surprise success of the 2017 stage musical The Band’s Visit. As the cast was performing it off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater, they had a feeling early on that the audience seemed to be affected. “We didn’t know what we had; you never know. Then it started to snowball. It was a limited run at the Atlantic, but it was selling so well, it was extended two weeks. Word of mouth was good; reviews were positive. When it closed, we heard rumblings it would move to Broadway.” It did, and later won 10 Tony Awards, including one for Shalhoub for Leading Actor in a Musical. 

Love Letters is a special event the couple hopes audiences will enjoy. The first time Georgia Ensemble Theatre artistic director James Donadio met Adams and Shalhoub was in a project the three acted in a while back. “When Anita suggested this, I knew it was a marvelous idea,” Donadio says. “We are honored and grateful to have Tony and Brooke here.” 

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Jim Farmer covers theater and film for ArtsATL. A graduate of the University of Georgia, he has written about the arts for 30-plus years. Jim is the festival director of Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival. He lives in Avondale Estates with his husband, Craig, and dog, Douglas.