Dear Shadowland, 

“Dear Jack, Dear Louise” is a hit. It’s heartwarming, funny, nostalgic, thought-provoking and quite possibly one of my favorite shows I’ve ever seen.

I may be a little biased because I too have some World War II letters in my basement from my great-uncle and his girlfriend, with a very different ending, and the show in The Studio made me cry and hold my breath and forget for a little while that World War II love stories could end any way other than happily. You’ll want to see this show again and again; I know I do.

“Dear Jack, Dear Louise” by Ken Ludwig is based off of his parents’ letters during World War II and follows Jacob “Jack” Ludwig (Michael Liebhauser) and Louise Rabiner (Alexandra Fortin) as they get to know each other, fall in love, try to meet and are continually thwarted by Louise’s blooming acting career, and Jack’s service as a doctor in the US Army and deployment to Europe. At first separated by the continental US, and later by the Atlantic Ocean, the show takes its audience by the hand and sends them on a whirlwind three years through funny, witty and smart exchanges. It’s brilliantly done, and I spent half the time watching the letter receiver’s reactions to the letter writer as they actually read the letters. Keep your eyes on Jack’s bashful reactions, and Louise’s flirtatious hair twirling all at pieces of paper – it’s wonderful!

Michael Liebhauser plays Jack with nuance, and the awkward doctor who initiates correspondence with a family friend falls first. He is captivating on stage, and balances Jack’s youth and idealism with the truth: he’s a young man at war, and war is hell. He is a member of the (now rapidly dwindling) Greatest Generation, and he balances the light and the dark; the lovestruck man with the doctor seeing the horrors of both the Pacific theater and Europe. In the second act, when Jack is stationed in Europe, Liebhauser crawls around the stage with his helmet and rucksack from foxhole to foxhole with one of Louise’s letters in his hands and it’s stunning and heartrending. The chemistry between he and Alexandra Fortin is electric, and all the more so because they each share a stage but don’t meet until the very end of the show.

Alexandra Fortin is a spitfire - a show stealer in the best way possible. Her Louise is vibrant and full of life, and yet it’s her time alone on the stage when Jack’s letters stop coming that sticks with me. She is vibrant, yes, but behind the carefree smiles and her excitement over touring across the US as an actress, Fortin shows us that Louise is a young woman in love with a man in constant danger. And she is terrified for him. And when that terror overwhelms her and she falls to the floor in tears…well, I can tell you I was crying with her. We talk a lot about the men at war, but there were women at home who were left behind. Women who couldn’t imagine the horror the men were going through but who lived in fear of getting a telegram…and if they weren’t married to the man, never hearing anything at all. 

The joy in this show is that it is not only Jack and Louise’s letters to each other, but to others that really rounds out the love story. Liebhauser’s Jack is incensed and threatens his 11 aunts to treat Louise well. Louise is in contact with one of Jack’s Army buddies, and he is the only person to keep her in the loop when Jack goes MIA. For a two-person show, you leave discussing more than just Jack and Louise.

The Studio is the perfect place for this play. From the moment you step in the lobby, Shadowland Stages sets the scene and transports you back in time with Big Band music playing - the type of music you can’t help but dance to. And when you enter The Studio, the stage is surrounded by the audience on all sides: Jack’s half of the stage is clean and sparse, with a rucksack and medical bag beneath his cot; Louise’s littered with purses, shoes strewn by her bed and a radio at the ready. The design clearly divides the young lovers, but also encircles them in the flurry of letters tying them together. Shoutout to Scenic & Costume Designer Christian Fleming, and Props Designer Dana Weintraub – the attention to detail is transporting.

Props to Director Stephen Nachamie and Technical Director Peter Johnson, as well as Jeremy Johnson for the lighting design, and Jeff Knapp for the sound design. In a small space, the lighting and sound are important and thanks to these elements this show says as much with a half-empty stage as any letter ever could. 

I could go on and on about this show. I really could. The historical quotes, the timelessness of the story. It’s the type of show that makes you believe in happy endings, but it puts you through the wringer to get there. You will laugh. You will cry. And hopefully you will leave the theater like me, thinking about those young lovers of the 40s. The ones with happy endings, and the ones with sad ones.

Here’s to the Jacks and Louises who found a way when the world seemed stacked against them. Here’s to the Greatest Generation. And here’s to how something as simple as ink on paper can change lives and enrich them in the best way possible: with love and healing.

“Dear Jack, Dear Louise” is now playing at The Studio at Shadowland Stages from June 21 through July 7 (Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 2 pm – please note per the ticketing website there will be a show on Wednesday July 3rd at 8pm instead of Thursday July 4th). Tickets can be purchased on their website shadowlandstages.org or by calling the box office 845-647-5511.