Love-letter romance delivers the goods
HELENE HANFF’S story 84 Charing Cross Road is now almost half a century old, but it still charms, seldom more than in a touring production starring Stefanie Powers and Clive Francis.
Miss Powers plays a New York writer (Hanff) who falls in love, via letters over two decades, with a London antiquarian bookshop and its initially reserved manager Frank Doel.
I toddled along to the Richmond Theatre not expecting much from this dusty yarn. In fact, it is the sweetest thing seen for many a moon, thanks in large part to Mr Francis and his American co-star.
The show opens with cast members strolling the stage with musical instruments, slowly breaking into first a classical piece, to signify Marks & Co Books, and then a more jazzy number, to signify Hanff’s Manhattan apartment.
The two sit side by side. Stage right, slightly raised, is Miss Powers at a typewriter, smoking; stage left is the bookshop, created beautifully by designer Norman Coates with high shelves, a tall desk for Doel and an air of penumbral learning.
When Helene starts ordering books, it is 1949 and London is still half-starved from post-war rationing. To thank Frank for his good service, she sends food parcels for Christmas and Easter.
Slowly he thaws and his letters become more personal. The story’s virtue lies in its understatement and soft melancholy. Small acts of kindness — a tin of luncheon meat and fresh eggs, a reciprocal present of a volume of love poems — will make your eyes prickle.
Do both Miss Powers and Mr Francis possibly overdo, by five per cent, the throaty chuckles?
I could have done with proper harmonies when the shop staff sing Abide With Me, too. But those are the only quibbles in a delightful, moving evening.