LOS ANGELES -- Singer/songwriter Melissa Manchester's musical I Sent a Letter to My Love will be produced as a radio show by L.A. Theatre Works Jan. 28-31 at the Doubletree Guest Suites in Santa Monica.

Based on a novel by Bernice Rubens, which was also adapted into a film starring Simone Signoret, I Sent a Letter to My Love had a limited run Off-Broadway two years ago.

Manchester and her collaborator, Jeffrey Sweet, old friends and writing partners from their New York University days, spent four years adapting Ruben's novel.

The L.A. Theatre Works production marks the show's West Coast premiere.

Pat Birch directs a cast that includes Manchester, Stephen Bogardus, Meagen Fay and John Hickok, among others. Recently L.A. Theatre Works was awarded a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to maintain its library of contemporary American and classic plays stage plays on audio tape, and to market and distribute the plays on audiocassette and CD throughout the U.S. L.A. Theatre Works has also launched a project to donate tapes to school libraries in underserved areas across the country.

All performances of I Sent a Letter to My Love will be recorded for future broadcast on National Public Radio. For tickets and information, call (310) 827-0889.

-- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent