Casting Director Plays a Weekly Version of the Match Game for ‘Love Letters’

Does Valerie Bertinelli go with Ned Beatty or Judd Nelson? Carol Burnett with Leslie Nielsen or Christopher Reeve? Charlton Heston with Jean Simmons or Swoosie Kurtz?

That’s the weekly dilemma at Beverly Hills’ Canon Theatre, where revolving celebrity couples are starring in A. R. Gurney’s “Love Letters,” a two-character piece in the form of a staged reading of the 50-year correspondence between East Coast bluebloods Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III.

Aside from real-life sweeties Matthew Broderick and Helen Hunt, and Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker, the stage couplings are courtesy of casting director Steven Fertig, who’s been with the project since it bowed in March at the Pasadena Playhouse.

“I think the appeal of the show is the combination of material and celebrities,” Fertig said, sitting in the play’s production office above the theater. “A lot of people are coming to see the play, and the fact that there are two celebrities in it is icing on the cake. Others have said, ‘I want to see “Love Letters,” but I love Gena Rowlands, so I’m going to wait for her.’ Some people know exactly who they want to see; others shop around. We also get a lot of actors who want to see their favorite actors on stage.”

A solid hit now, with bookings tentatively scheduled through year’s end--watch for a Delta Burke and Gerald McRaney Yuletide pairing--Fertig is regularly besieged by agents and managers with requests from clients eager to appear in the show.

His casting criteria have several elements. “We like to have people in the public eye,” he said. “For instance, we were working on Andrew McCarthy and Molly Ringwald, and then ‘Betsy’s Wedding’ came out. I mean, she’s a name everyone knows anyway, but then, suddenly she’s in a new movie. Or if there’s a TV show that’s popular, you find out when might be a light week for them or when they’re on hiatus. Like in Dinah Manoff’s case--we got her a week before she went back to ‘Empty Nest.’ ”

Fertig credits instinct for knowing whom to pair with whom; the casting process itself is often a back-and-forth, phone and mail negotiation between him and the actor’s representative. “What I’ll generally do is, if I’ve booked a woman, give a list of five or six men to their agent, and ask them to give me their order of preference. No one’s come back to me and said, ‘He refuses to do it with her.’ Everybody wants to do it--I think because it’s just a week, not a six-month or two-year commitment.”

Availability and celebrity aren’t the only factors. So’s a background in theater. “Almost every actor has been onstage before,” Fertig said. “Victoria Principal is the only one who hasn’t. She was here last week, and did quite a good job. I stood at the back of the theater beaming and gleaming.” Although performers are paired with someone of like age--”so the audience can believe they went to elementary school together”--Fertig is less concerned that his players are of similar celebrity stature.

“Take Kate Jackson and Charles Kimbrough. Chuck has been a favorite of mine for years. A lot of people just know him from ‘Murphy Brown,’ but he’s really an established stage actor. Kate can be so quirky and has a great sense of humor, and he’s so straight and conservative--which is just like the Andy and Melissa characters. So I’ll go to the producers and say, ‘What do you think of Kate Jackson and Charles Kimbrough?’ Sometimes it’s ‘Convince me.’ But in this case, it was ‘I love it.’ ”

None of the actors is ever asked to read for the part (though several have offered). Once interest is expressed, the prospective participants are discussed in a three-way dialogue between Fertig and co-producers Joan Stein and Susan Dietz. “All the names are run by Pete Gurney,” he added. “I don’t think there have been many who are out-and-out rejected. There have even been noes at the beginning who have turned into yeses. It’s a very extensive approval process.”

Fertig maintains that he’s never worried that the people he’s coupled on paper won’t work onstage. Although some of the actors are friends, or have worked together in the past, many couples meet at their first and only rehearsal--on the day they open. “It could be a risk,” Fertig said. “But the writing’s so good--the laughs are written there; the tears are written there. The actors are excited about doing it. As far as I know, no one has doubted their partner.”

Egos, he says, are miraculously absent. “I think it’s because it’s theater. You do what you have to do. If the dressing room’s dirty, you clean it up. All the actors are responsible for their own wardrobe, their own hair and their own makeup. Not one person has come to me and said, ‘I need a makeup person.’ ” Perks are limited to transportation from the airport, a basket of fruit on opening night, and a $1,500-per-week paycheck. “Obviously,” Fertig said, “they’re not doing it for the money.”

Still, theater perennially takes a back seat to more lucrative film and TV work, and the specter of losing people to commercial commitments is a real one. Lesley Ann Warren and Beau Bridges left the play when film projects intervened; Harry Hamlin bowed out to start up his production company. Fortunately, others have always been available to jump into the breach. Sally Kirkland subbed for Lee Remick’s last two shows. Alan Rachins stood in one night for Ed Begley Jr.

This week, “Love Letters” breaks racial ground with the pairing of Diahann Carroll and Paul Winfield.

“They’re not WASPy at all,” said associate director Ted Weiant, who’s staging August’s shows. “But then, neither is Ben Gazzara. The magic of this play is that it’s about interpretation, not representation. That’s why we’ve been able to do it with older and younger couples--and now a black couple. The issues are universal: lost dreams, missed connections. I think Paul and Diahann will give Pete’s words a new understanding--above physical value, race value. It’s human emotional value.”

Fertig, who’s also excited by the idea of future Latino and Asian casts, is understandably diplomatic when it comes to assessing his favorite players to date.

“I start to mention names, then I think back and say, ‘Well, she was really good in that, and I really liked him in that.’ I didn’t not like anybody.” He sighed wistfully. “Of course, Lee Remick onstage just makes me melt. She’s so beautiful. To see Gena Rowlands onstage, Carol Burnett onstage. Julie Hagerty made me laugh so hard. Meredith Baxter-Birney was great. Christine Lahti, opening night, was just incredible. Michael Learned was wonderful. . . .”

“Love Letters” plays at the Canon Theatre, 205 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, indefinitely. Show times are at 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, at 5 and 9 p.m. Saturdays and at 3 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $27.50 to $30. (213) 859-2830.