Left on Tenth Broadway Reviews

So an anodyne rom-com is for the most part what we get from this play, which opened on Wednesday night at the James Earl Jones Theater. Julianna Margulies stars as Delia, an anxious, bookish denizen of Greenwich Village, still grieving her husband’s death. Peter Gallagher plays the widowed Peter, the calm Californian psychoanalyst for whom Delia falls by email, so suddenly that it feels fated.

Frankly, there’s not much by way of plot that doesn’t feel well-worn, but director Susan Stroman, ably assisted by Beowulf Boritt’s lovely, very efficient set design, Jeff Mahshie’s appealing and city-accurate costumes and projection designs by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew of leafy Greenwich Village and romantic Manhattan skyline, infuses the entire affair with a warm affability that’s as inviting as the affectionate performances of Margulies and Gallagher. Left on Tenth is a slight endeavor – slighter, probably, than a cancer odyssey has any right to be – and certainly falls short of better Ephron Sister efforts. Even so, there can be only one response to it, and that’s well wishes for all.

But despite its very best intentions, the play is frustratingly surface level, rarely delving beyond Hallmark card sentiments about taking the good with the bad. At 100 minutes, the show hastily whips through a life’s worth of milestones and minutiae, told mostly through verbose exposition delivered directly to the audience.

There is no doubt as to what the new play “Left on Tenth,” which opened at the James Earl Jones Theatre Wednesday night, wants to be: A romantic, funny and harrowing tale of a woman’s rebirth. Yet, after seeing Delia Ephron’s Broadway show starring Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher, different descriptors jump to mind: Sappy, sluggish and awkward.

“Left on Tenth” is based on Delia Ephron’s 2022 memoir of that name and its adaptation into a dramatic play is, you might charitably say, modest. Margulies’ Delia narrates her circumstances throughout. Gallagher’s Peter doesn’t get to express much of a point of view; he’s presented as perceived by Ephron. Scenes of the couple going out on a date or Peter ministering to Delia as she lies in a hospital bed are brief and episodic. And while both of these actors are honest, vulnerable and appealing — no faint praise — they are not delivering bravura stage performances. I’d argue such zig-zaggingly internal material does not really allow for such performances anyway. Margulies in particular was still finding her throughline at the show I saw. But it’s still a piece of acting that reflects some courage.

Margulies’s Ephron is too glossy to believe, as though this production didn’t trust the appeal of its own story. “No one wants to hear about older people getting it on,” Delia says—“Yes, that’s true!” said an elderly woman behind me, loudly and conclusively—so instead of the adorable real people of Ephron’s memoir we get famously attractive actors getting it over with. Aside from them, however, the show is not very pretty. Directed by Susan Stroman, Left in Tenth has the energy and the color scheme of a drugstore greeting card: This is a cheap-looking production, from Beowulf Boritt’s jankily angled set to Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew’s blotchy projections and the least realistic prop drinks you’ll ever see.

She channeled her frustration with the communications company into a New York Times piece, which led to the discovery of the second great love of her life, Peter. The start of their story became the heart of her 2022 memoir, Left On Tenth, now adapted into a middling Broadway play starring Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher (presumably Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks weren’t available).

They say that a writer should write what they know. But in Delia Ephron’s case the advice may be a bit too on-the-nose. Left on Tenth, her new Broadway play based on her best-selling memoir, relates such life-changing events as the death of her first husband, her improbable late-in-life romance, and her battle with a rare form of cancer that almost killed her. By the end of the evening, you’ll have come to very much like Delia Ephron. The play, not so much.

What bothers me more is not understanding why Ephron would dilute what could be a truly inspiring tale of senior citizens stepping out of their respective comfort zones to take a chance at happiness? As it stands, “Left on Tenth” feels like watching a rom-com with two extremely good-looking middle-aged people.

Is there still an audience for a show like Left on Tenth, an awkward blend of rom-com and dramedy about a couple of urban boomers that Delia Ephron adapted from her own 2022 memoir? I don’t know if there are enough ladies who lunch, or who at least grab a bite before a Broadway matinee, to pay up to $291 to sit through a genial, female-centric show that Lifetime would reject for lack of dramatic tension.

Delia Ephron’s Left on Tenth has all the hallmarks of a romantic comedy: an urban setting, romantic tension, and perhaps most importantly, adorable dogs. But the play, based on Ephron’s bestselling memoir, may have a greater impact on the page than the stage. And while it would make a charming rom-com film, it doesn’t fully translate to theatre.