‘Left On Tenth’ Is Funny, Touching, Intelligently Written And Beautifully Acted

If you’re a veteran theatergoer lamenting the absence of good, old-fashioned love stories on Broadway, hope has arrived. Left on Tenth—the new play by Delia Ephron, the playwright and sister of beloved writer-director Nora Ephron—is funny, touching, intelligently written, beautifully acted, deeply personal in every detail yet widely universal in concept. It’s at the New York theater named after James Earl Jones, the catch in your throat and the tears it will put in your eyes will be genuine because every word of it is true, and I honestly don’t know what you’re waiting for. 

Still mourning the loss of Nora, her sibling and mentor who died at 71 in 2012, Delia was doubly unhinged when writer Jerome Kass, her husband for three decades, died four years later and left her alone in their flat on Tenth Street. Both of them taught her the value of humor in her writing (among other things, Delia co-authored Nora’s great movie You’ve Got Mail) but the emotional assault of so many losses left her so depleted that she didn’t feel like writing anything very joyous. Instead, she collected all of her feelings in a best-selling memoir that is now adapted for the stage. The bad times congealed when she decided to sever all ties to the past and wrote a funny essay in the New York Times about the difficulties involved in getting rid of Jerry’s Verizon cell phone, an act of closure that opened new doors instead. Out of the blue, old friends re-entered her life. One of them was Peter, a shrink in San Francisco with three grown children she didn’t remember, even though they met through her sister Nora and dated a few times. When their phone calls and emails persisted, compounded by a few cross-country plane rides and surprisingly unexpected mutual satisfaction in the designer sheets, the serendipity between the two, both widowed and lonely, eventually grew into love and marriage. Through the minutiae of everyday topics (“How do you feel about tipping?”) their camaraderie deepens.

But then, in the middle of a deliriously new kind of happiness, as soon as they let down their defenses and admit they’re in it for keeps and ready for a new chapter of happy-ever-after, Delia is diagnosed with the same cancer that killed Nora, and it becomes Peter’s focus to save her. For under two hours without intermission, Left on Tenth works hard to stay light, juicing the wit out of one harrowing crisis after the next, including Delia’s repeated bone marrow tests. The play’s final chapter grows dark, but succeeds in relieving tension thanks to the sensational charm and chemistry of its two stars, both exquisitely directed by Susan Stroman. Julianna Margulies has been terrific in a number of TV series, but nothing I’ve seen her do equals the range of emotions she shows here. She’s a sharp, focused Delia, and Peter Gallagher is a handsome, appealing life force in every scene they share onstage—supportive, brave, and too good to be true. I’ve admired him often onstage, especially as Sky Masterson in the smash-hit revival of Guys and Dolls and opposite Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand in Mike Nichols’ superb production of The Country Girl, but never have his diverse skills melded so consummately as they do in Left on Tenth.“Life wasn’t meant to be celebrated in only one way,” he says to Delia when she prays for death in the hospital. “Life is joy and life is pain, and it’s OK to experience both.” The point, I think, is that it’s admirable for three-dimensional people to give each other the space to forge ahead in the face of life’s constant defeats.

This is a story of compassion, danger, and hope on a heartfelt personal level as it highlights the way a dealt with the death of her sister, husband, and two devoted dogs (played adorably by two four-legged scene stealers named Dulce and Charlie)—but without a trace of remorse or self-indulgence. “This is rough,” says Delia. “This,” answers her oncologist, “is war.” She won the battle and it’s no spoiler to remind you that we know going in it has a happy ending. It’s as much a comedy about second chances as it is a drama about survival—a skinny dip into the courage and decency of two extraordinary people who never took the easy way out as they fought for a better life in a world of life’s most turbulent challenges.

Left on Tenth | 1hr 40mins. No intermission. | James Earl Jones Theater | 138 W 48th St | 212-239-6200 | Buy Tickets Here