Adapted for the stage from her best-selling 2022 memoir of the same name, Left on Tenth, by novelist and screenwriter Delia Ephron (You’ve Got Mail), recounts her late-in-life love story and second chance at life in her 70s, after struggling through the loss of her sister Nora and husband Jerry to cancer, reconnecting via email with Peter – a recently widowed Jungian psychiatrist from the San Francisco Bay area and an old college date from 54 years ago – after he read her 2016 op-ed about it in the New York Times, then being diagnosed with AML, an aggressive form of leukemia, four months later. Starring Julianna Margulies as Delia and Peter Gallagher as Peter (known largely for their screen roles), and directed by five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman, the new work, now playing a limited Broadway engagement at the James Earl Jones Theatre, combines the giddiness of a rom-com with the adversities of a drama, as she rediscovers the beauty and comfort of love again while facing the unpredictable challenges of illness and the prospect of her own death.
The story begins well before curtain time with the sound of Delia’s phone call to Verizon on hold, with repeated messages to stay on the line and the anticipated wait time (sound by Jill BC Du Boff); it then opens with a sit-com-style scene of an exasperated Delia rushing in to pick up her cell phone and trying in vain to speak to a representative and get the company to restore her internet service, which was accidentally discontinued after she had them disconnect her late husband’s landline.
It’s a funny intro to her backstory, which is then delivered through segments of direct address to the audience, recitations of letters and emails to and from Peter that reveal their growing attachment, re-enactments of conversations and meetings with him and her closest friends, and scenes in her doctor’s office and the hospital during her painful fight to survive, with the excellent Peter Francis James and Kate MacCluggage portraying the wide range of supporting characters with quick changes and distinctive looks, personalities, demeanors, and accents (in costumes by Jeff Mahshie and wigs by Michael Buonincontro).
Unfortunately, what I found generally absent from the rest of the show is the humor or tension of the opening, relying instead on a schmaltzy characterization of Delia’s newfound love, an incredibly perfect man in every way – smart, successful, sensitive, supportive, and stunningly handsome – who stands by her, saves her life, and whose only flaws are carrying a backpack and over-seasoning his food with red pepper flakes. The one-note lead performances lack a range of believable emotions and often fall flat, save for Margulies’ emotional breakdown in her hospital bed after receiving an experimental bone marrow transplant that leaves her in excruciating pain and begging Peter to let her die. We already know that he doesn’t, since she went on to write the memoir and play, so no surprise there.
Tellingly, he brings her an over-sized card on Valentine’s Day, which he attaches to the wall of her room; it’s a prop that captures the overall tone of the production, too much of it done in the mawkish manner of a Hallmark card. More naturally affecting appearances, eliciting audible reactions from the audience at the performance I attended, came from Delia’s adorable dogs Honey and Charlie (played by Nessa Rose and Charlie), who stole the show every time they took the stage (with William Berloni serving as their trainer).
The title Left on Tenth references Delia’s home on the one-way street in Greenwich Village, in which she was left alone by the death of Jerry. Its grand library/office is the focus of the set (by Beowulf Boritt), with roll-in furnishings and projections above the back wall (by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew) that identify the changing times and places, then opens and revolves to shift to her hospital room and other locales, all defined by appropriate lighting (by Ken Billington and Itohan Edoloyi).
Left on Tenth offers an uplifting account of Ephron’s serious battle with cancer, dealing with the deaths of those closest to her, and finding unexpected happiness in her senior years with her perfect man and her unfailing relationships with good friends. For me, it’s in need of a greater depth of emotion and a more expressive range of feelings, but if you take your rom-dramedies light on the drama and heavy on the romance, you will most likely enjoy her autobiographical journey to a happy ending. And no one could possibly resist the dogs!
Running Time: Approximately one hour and 40 minutes, without intermission.
Left on Tenth plays through Sunday, February 2, 2025, at the James Earl Jones Theatre, 138 West 48th Street, NYC. For tickets (priced at $74-291, including fees), go online.
