Based on Delia Ephron’s bestselling memoir, this warm and witty new play Left on Tenth, opens on Broadway tonight, directed by five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman and stars Julianna Margulies, Peter Gallagher, Peter Francis James and Kate MacCluggage Read the reviews!
When she least expects it, Delia, beloved novelist and screenwriter of You’ve Got Mail, reconnects with a man from her past and falls into her own romantic comedy. What starts with an unlikely spark blossoms into a love story that seems to defy all odds in the face of life’s challenges. Left on Tenth tells the messy, beautiful true story of a woman discovering how to embrace the unpredictable and open her heart again.
The production features scenic design by two-time Tony Award winner Beowulf Boritt, costume design by Tony Award nominee Jeff Mahshie, lighting design by Tony Award winner Ken Billington and Itohan Edoloyi, sound design by Jill BC Du Boff, projection design by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew, wig design by Michael Buonincontro, and animal training by Special Tony Award honoree William Berloni Theatrical Animals, Inc.
Laura Collins-Hughes, The New York Times: 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.
Frank Scheck, New York Stage Review: 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.
Melissa Rose Bernardo, New York Stage Review: 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).
Greg Evans, Deadline: 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.
Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune: “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.
Average Rating:
47.1%
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