Romance novels generate over $1.44 billion in yearly revenue. Some of them are historical, some deal with contemporary issues, others are fantasies i.e. they’re no longer axiomatically bodice-rippers or greeted with snobbery.
“There’s a boom in romance bookstores. More than 20 of them have sprung up around the United States in the past few years… and more are on the way.” (Alexandra Alter The New York Times) Though the pandemic radically changed movie theaters, prior box office revenue of romance films amounted to more than $86 million. Everybody wants a happy ending.
Julianna Margulies (Delia) and her friend played by Peter Francis James
Writer Delia Ephron (she tells us) has been a romance fan since watching the musical film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers as a little girl. Many of her books and screenplays – notably the iconic Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail – are quirky love stories. (Both were written with her sister, Nora “who reinvented romantic comedy.”)
When Delia’s real life became one, she was surprised and suspicious. Her uniquely literary family taught their daughters, “Everything is copy.” (All four became writers.) Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life (2022) began as a book. Were we not told this is a true story, it would frankly seem unlikely.
In New York, recent widow Delia (Julianna Margulies) finds herself in phone hell with Verizon having had her internet inadvertently disabled. We hear familiar robotic voices, lengthy hold music, and beeps. Frustration is turned into a witty New York Times article. Across the country, widowed psychiatrist Peter (Peter Gallagher), who happens to have been on a couple of dates with Delia when they were in college, reads the piece, relates, and writes to its author. They correspond, then talk.
Peter Gallagher (Peter) and Julianna Margulies (Delia)
Peter uses the word “Beshert” which in the Jewish religion means destiny, often in the form of a soulmate. They progress to cross country flights and joint travel. Just as she lowers her guard and gratefully accepts him, Delia discovers she has Leukemia, the disease that killed Nora. (Doctors assure her this kind is different.) We know she survives.
That Peter puts his practice on hold and sleeps on a cot in the hospital; that they marry there when, after agonizing treatment, she emerges in remission, creates a happily ever after scenario usually confined to fiction.
Reviews of the book imply it’s moving. The play, not so much. Though we cheer burgeoning romance and sympathize with horrific (well played) illness, Ephron and her director, Susan Stroman hedge their bets. Delia and Peter met in their seventies with full lives behind, consciousness of time remaining. Actors are at least a decade younger. When Delia recovers sufficiently to walk up and down hospital corridors with Peter, the pair is repeatedly asked how long they’ve been married. “24 hours,” “two weeks”… too young to appear an enviable older couple.
Julianna Margulies (Delia) and her doctor played by Kate MacCluggage
Constantly addressing the audience takes us out of ongoing involvement. Emails and telephone calls leave out anything serious, which must’ve existed in tandem with humor. Extensive medical terminology irritates rather than increasing authenticity. The appearance of gamboling, comedic figures costumed out of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and use of old pop songs cheapens rather than lightens. Parentheses when Delia or the couple dance, on the other hand, are credible and lovely.
Julianna Margulies broadly gestures with every sentence in unnatural, silent film fashion and seems to wait for reacting chuckles. She’s only intermittently believable. Peter Gallagher is low key, calm, and charming throughout. Exactly as one might imagine his namesake. Kate MacCluggage and Peter Francis James capably serve in a multitude of roles, some alas, treated as sketch comedy.
Julianna Margulies and Honey
Beowulf Boritt’s morphing scenic design is fluid and effective, but too often in competition with elaborate projections of skyline and sky by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew. (Unto themselves, these are aesthetically pleasing.)
Jeff Mahshie’s costumes for women are the most bland, unflattering and cheap looking I’ve seen onstage for some time. Equally appalling are Michael Buonincontro’s wigs, all of which look fake and are shaped to make wearers unattractive.
I take no issue with romantic comedy. We could use more of it these trying days. Something’s Gotta Give, It’s Complicated, As Good As It Gets, and Ephron’s own noted films successfully mix various levels of adversity with vision through rose colored glasses. This piece never finds connecting narrative. My companion admittedly had a grand time.
(Yes, the dog, rather dogs are live.)
Photos by Joan Marcus
Left on Tenth by Delia Ephron
Directed by Susan Stroman
James Earl Jones Theatre
138 West 48th Street
