Stephen Schnetzer as Peter and Dalia Aleman as Delia connect in GableStage’s Left on Tenth (Photos by Magnus Stark)
By Oline H. Cogdill
Love and grief don’t have a timetable but can occur at anytime, often blindsiding. Love can vanish too quickly while grief can linger too long. Both emotions are in full force in the comedy-drama Left on Tenth, receiving a sweet, poignant production through Dec. 21 at the Wolfson Family Theatre at GableStage in Coral Gables.
Left on Tenth is based on Delia Ephron’s memoir about her life following the death of her husband of 33 years. The play richly touches on love, loss, grief, illness, surviving and the resilience of the human heart. Left on Tenth is also about the power of unconditional love—both human and canine—about never giving up on love and how sometimes that love can come when one least expects it. Left on Tenth is, in its own way, the perfect holiday play as it is full of hope.
This regional premiere packs all that, and more, in under two tightly focused hours under the smooth direction of GableStage Producing Artistic Director Bari Newport and her fully invested cast, including two adorable dogs.
At its heart, Left on Tenth is pure rom-com, embracing all the tenets of that genre, though few romantic comedies deal with life-threatening illnesses. Expect plenty of laughs and plenty of tears, too, sometimes at the same time. Ephron brings few surprises, but her crisp writing and relatable characters make this a delight. And a happy ending is a given—remember, rom-com.
Dalia Aleman portrays Delia Ephron, who, when we first meet her, is in the midst of an incredibly frustratingly long hold with the cell phone company. In trying to have her late husband’s landline canceled, the internet was canceled in her Greenwich Village apartment. It’s been six months since her husband, Jerry, died from prostate cancer in their apartment and the grief comes in waves. She has many friends scattered throughout the country and overseas, and her sweet dog Buddy, but the emptiness is there. She worries if she did enough for him, regrets the things not said.
The Ephrons are a family of successful writers. Delia’s parents were famous screenwriters and playwrights as was oldest sister Nora. Delia’s two younger sisters, Hallie and Amy, are novelists.
Naturally, Delia writes about grief and losing her internet in a 2016 essay for the “New York Times.”
Internt restored, Delia receives an email from Peter (Stephen Schnetzer), a widowed psychotherapist who lives in California. He fondly remembers her from their college days when her sister Nora set them up on a date that led to several outings. He remembers meeting her parents. She has no recollection of them ever meeting, let alone dating.
Peter wants to express his sympathy about the deaths of her husband and Nora. The two begin to fall in love through emails, then, gasp, phone calls to eventually meeting in person that is, at first, awkward. Delia is full of misgivings—they are too old, she’s not done grieving, and other excuses until love takes over.
Aleman and Schnetzer both inhabit their characters completely. The two have undeniable chemistry and as their characters fall in love, the audience falls in love with the characters, rooting for them.
Schnetzer, whose varied credits include 17 years on Another World, portrays Peter with compassion, generosity and intelligence. Aleman shows Delia as a bundle of anxiety, torn between honoring her late husband, fear of falling in love again and worried she will not. Aleman’s reputation for her solid acting was sealed years ago in South Florida. But Left on Tenth allows her to go even deeper in her role. Both actors are a joy to watch.
Adding to sense that Peter and Delia live in the real world are actors Margot Moreland and Ben Sandomir who portray dozens of characters, turning in seconds as friends, neighbors, health professionals and more, landing perfectly with different accents. Moreland and Sandomir have played a variety of leading and supporting roles in South Florida theaters and they are a delight to watch as they quick change into various roles, some of which are quite brief. Their homage to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is an absolute hoot while they bring sensitivity as the myriad doctors and nurses.
It will hardly be a surprise—certainly not to anyone who saw the movie You’ve Got Mail—that Delia and Peter will end up marrying, deliriously happy. That allusion to You’ve Got Mail is deliberate as Delia and her sister Nora co-wrote the screenplay. But Left on Tenth veers greatly when leukemia enters. The disease runs in the Ephron family—Nora died from it in 2012. Delia has been vigilant about getting her blood tested, and all has been well. Until it isn’t. Delia’s leukemia diagnosis sends the couple on new journey of treatments, doctors’ visits, complicated prognosis and remissions.
It’s no spoiler that Delia survives—she did write this play after all—and that couple also is still thriving. Left on Tenth pulls out all the emotional stops—bring tissues, plenty of them. But Delia’s script never succumbs to the maudlin or cliches. These are real emotions.
Frank J. Oliva’s scenic design is a wonder—simple, yet innovative—serving as a mirror to their personalities, a backdrop to scene changes, a sophisticated New York apartment. A series of movable bookcases accented by David Lander’s stylized lighting and Jamie Godwin’s evocative projection designs are filled with facsimiles of ultra-modern books that mention awards, screenplays the sisters wrote and feelings.
Dogs are an important part of Delia’s life with Honey, played by mixed-breed rescue Buddy Dalton, and Charlie, played by Goldendoodle Winston Benjamin Dalton. Yes, they each have a bio in the program. At each Sunday matinee during the run, GableStage will spotlight a local dog rescue.
Left on Tenth had a successful Broadway run from September 2024 to February 2025 with Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher. It is now making the rounds of regional theaters. As usual, GableStage is on the cutting edge.
Left on Tenth runs through Dec. 21 at the Wolfson Family Theatre at GableStage, in the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables. Call 305-445-1119 or visit gablestage.org for tickets. Running time about one hour, forty minutes with no intermission. Performance times vary. Tickets range from $60 to $95.
A PaperStreet Web Design
