Boca Stage’s Living on Love Is Lightweight But Full-Throttle Fun

By Jan Sjostrom

Living on Love aims for full-throttle fun. It has no truck with deeper meanings or intellectual stimulation.

With that in mind, the production Boca Stage is performing in the Cabaret Theatre at the Delray Beach Playhouse largely succeeds.

The play, which debuted in 2014, was written by Joe DiPietro, who based it on Garson Kanin’s 1985 play, Peccadillo. DiPietro’s other work includes the Tony Award-winning book and lyrics for Memphis, the 2010 Best Musical Tony winner, as well as the book and lyrics for the long-running Off-Broadway musical I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.

Living on Love’s lightweight story centers on a battle of titanic egos that pits the opera diva Raquel against her conductor husband Vito. Both are nearing the end of their celebrity careers and are loathe to admit it. Neither will tolerate being bested by the other – or anyone else for that matter.

Set in 1957, the story unfolds in the couple’s Manhattan apartment. Raquel and Vito are facing the pressing need to finish Vito’s promised autobiography before they go broke. Unfortunately, Vito has been tearing through ghost writers faster than a coloratura soprano speeds through high notes.

Tensions mount as the couple use their seductive charms to maneuver Robert, the latest ghost writer, and Iris, the messenger whom the publisher sends to light a fire under Vito, into serving as weapons in their battle of the sexes.

DiPietro’s script lacks the originality to make this familiar formula really click. The play is funny, but its direction is obvious and the only reason to keep watching is to see how well the playwright, director and performers pull it off.

Director Keith Garsson opts for maximizing the laughs he can score from Raquel’s and Vito’s outsize personalities. The choice that gives the show whatever heart it has is his wise attention to the scenes in which the couple reminisce and reveal their enduring affection for each other.

Amber Lynne Benson and Mallory Newbrough

As Raquel, Mallory Newbrough convincingly pulls out all the stops, making grand entrances trilling excerpts of past roles, polishing accounts of bygone triumphs, basking in Robert’s tongue-tied adoration and fixing those who cross her with a basilisk stare. Her gowns – fit for an opening night gala – are stunning.

Wayne LeGette’s Vito – better known as “Maestro” – is less multi-faceted. Maestro refers to himself in the third person and stymies his ghost writers by talking only about his innumerable sexual conquests. That and his outbursts of temper and phony “Italian-a accent-a” shrink Vito into a caricature of the hot-blooded Latin, which seems to be built into the script.

It takes real presence for the performers playing Robert and Iris to compete with the stars’ story-gobbling personalities.

Jim Tyminski’s Robert is a bit too lily-livered. His best scenes include one in which Robert undermines Raquel’s self-aggrandizing fibs with a murmured recitation of the facts.

As Iris, Amber Lynn Benson generally holds her own. She’s at her best in her first scene when, under the influence of several steadying shots of gin, Iris sheds her prim demeanor, releases her inner tigress and starts flinging the silverware.

Jack Stein as Bruce and Matt Schenk as Eric play matched-set servants in Raquel’s and Vito’s household. They’re mildly amusing as they routinely complete each other’s sentences and delight in quashing expectations with the phrase “and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”

Claudia Smith’s bland set design, featuring tall wall units flanking a double glass-paned door, says little about the characters or their spendthrift ways. Over-long scene changes, accompanied by snippets of opera recordings, sometimes slow the story.

Living on Love is too slight to be memorable. But it’s probably right for theater fans in search of a mood-lifting distraction.

Living on Love runs through Jan. 26 at the Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 NW 9th St., Delray Beach. The show runs one hour and 45 minutes, plus a 15-minute intermission. Performances will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and 12 p.m. on Wednesday. Tickets range from $59 to $69. For tickets call (561) 272-1281 or visit delraybeachplayhouse.com