One of Broadway's Brightest Comedy Hits with LUV

THEATRE 40, in a collaboration with WEST COAST JEWISH THEATRE, will close its 2010-2011 Season with LUV, MURRAY SCHISGAL'S brainy and wildly funny spoof of avant-garde drama. The New York World-Telegram & Sun called LUV "...an evening of unalloyed pleasure, of sustained and perfect comedy, of total, tempestuous and glorious glee." LUV opens in Theatre 40's Reuben Cordova Theatre on May 18, 2011.

Harry Berlin, a despondent suicide wannabe, is prevented from jumping off a bridge by an old - and somewhat forgotten - college chum, Milt Manville. Milt, a prosperous stockbroker (who deals in second-hand bric-a-brac as a sideline), listens sympathetically to Harry's tales of woe. Milt himself is frustrated: he has fallen in love with a young woman named Linda, but his neurotic wife Ellen stands in his way. Presently Ellen appears, and Milt is inspired to bring Harry and Ellen together, so he can be free to marry his true love. The plot takes many twists and turns and is fraught with problems and misunderstandings that make this comedy a work of comic art.

MURRAY SCHISGAL, a native of Brooklyn, turned to writing plays after careers as a musician, attorney and teacher. His early work,The Typist, premiered on the London Stage in 1961 and at the Orpheum Theatre in New York in 1963. His first Broadway success came with Luv, a three-character play about pseudo-intellectuals, which premiered in 1964 and earned a Tony Award for director Mike Nichols. In 1969, Jimmy Shine, starring Dustin Hoffman, was produced on Broadway, followed by The Chinese & Dr. Fish (1970), An American Millionaire (1974), All Over Town (1974), and Twice Around The Park (1982). His most recent work has been produced Off-Broadway and at regional theatres across the country. Schisgal's screenplay Tootsie, which he co-wrote, received numerous awards including: L.A. Film Critics Award; N.Y. Film Critics Award; National Society for Film Critics Award; and the Writers Guild of America.