FALMOUTH—It's been more than 25 years since Joan Lunden and Charles Gibson last hosted ABC's "Good Morning America" together.
But on Saturday, the duo will make their theatre debut here, in A.R. Gurney's "Love Letters," at the Simon Center for the Arts at Falmouth Academy. (Tickets here.)
The benefit performance will coincide with Cape Cod Theatre Project's 30th season.
Gibson, who lives part-time in North Falmouth, recently came across a script from the play's 1989 Broadway debut, given to him by the late actor Jason Robards. When Gibson approached his former co-anchor about performing the show together, Lunden leapt at the chance.
The catch: The actors cannot interact or even look at each other.
"Charlie and I have such a rapport that I think our biggest challenge is going to be not to play to each other, but to the audience," Lunden said. "At the root of journalism, you're the gatekeeper of truth. And in kind of a parallel way, if you're an actor onstage, you're trying to get the audience to engage with you."
Patrick Flanary For a lot of people, the last time they saw Joan Lunden and Charles Gibson together at the same time was around 1997, when you were anchoring together. What was the impetus behind getting together for Love Letters?
Joan Lunden When Charlie came on board, you know, he had been the Capitol Hill correspondent for years, and he was so good at that. And we had such an amazing rapport together. The week before he started on air, he came into my office and closed the door and said, "I want to make a deal with you. Let's make a deal that we're going to do this show 50/50, that we're going to show America that a man and a woman can do a show together 50/50." And I said, "Deal, buddy!" That's how we kind of entered the arrangement. And we were very much almost beyond best friends. We were kind of like brother and sister.
So I got such a kick out of it when he emailed me a month or so ago with a proposition. He said, "I've always dreamed of doing this with you, and when Arleen and I packed up our house and moved to Seattle, where my daughter lives with her family, I found that script. Will you do it with me?"
Hal Brooks, director This particular play lends itself to what we do at Cape Cod Theater Project: staged readings. So to be able to do a well-built play — couples do it, friends do it — it is the perfect sort of showcase of that friendship, of that closeness, in a way that I think that our audiences will 100% relate to the material.
PF Joan, I'm curious what the parallels are between theatre and TV journalism.
JL Well, you're playing to an audience in both. And you want the audience to believe you, which I think is one of the saddest things about journalism today. I'm just finishing up my autobiography, and my last chapter is all about journalism then and now, and how we got to this place.
I'm so happy that that I hosted "Good Morning America" in the '70s, '80s and 90s, and not now. We did not do opinion journalism at all. And we've come to a time in our country where there's so much of that, and I think people are confused as to what are actual facts and opinion. It's left us in a very precarious place, I think, as a nation. At the root of journalism, you're the gatekeeper of truth. And in kind of a parallel way, if you're an actor onstage, you are trying to get them to engage with you. Charlie and I have such a rapport that I think our biggest challenge is going to be not to play to each other, not to look at each other, but just play to the audience.
PF Have you done a dry run together, or will this be the one and only time?
JL Well, I'm a research junkie, and I don't go into anything unprepared. Ever. I have read this over many, many, many, many times. I run it with one of my daughters, but I haven't done it with Charlie. We've agreed to come in ahead of time, and run it on Friday as well as Saturday. I said, "Charlie, it's just like riding a bike. That rapport with you and me is going to come right back."
Lunden and Gibson will perform "Love Letters" at Simon Center for the Arts at Falmouth Academy, on Saturday, 7 p.m.
