Susan Granger’s review of “Living on Love” (Longacre Theatre – April, 2015)
Back in 1985, Garson Kanin’s “Peccadillo” – about the tempestuous relationship between a legendary conductor and his opera star diva wife – opened and closed in Florida’s Ft. Lauderdale summer stock, despite the best efforts of co-stars Glynis Johns and Christopher Plummer.
But Kanin’s comedic concept inspired playwright Joe DiPietro to create a new play, one geared specifically for celebrated soprano Renee Fleming, who is making her Broadway debut, and filled with ‘inside’ opera references and jokes.
As the curtain opens on a posh Manhattan penthouse in 1957, Robert Samson (Jerry O’Connell), an aspiring novelist, is desperately trying to ghost-write the autobiography of aging Italian maestro Vito De Angelis (Douglas Sills). Elusive, delusionary Vito refuses to cooperate – until his equally egomaniacal wife Raquel (Fleming) unexpectedly returns and capriciously decides to write her own memoirs.
Fearing loss of their hefty advance, Little, Brown publishers dispatches an earnest assistant junior editor, Iris Peabody (Anna Chlumsky), to cajole vain Vito, while reluctantly middle-aged Raquel latches onto besotted Robert for her autobiography, saucily seducing him with fragments from “La Boheme” and “Tosca” Not to be outdone, amorous Vito demonstrates to Iris how he conducts “Bolero.”
Meanwhile, there are two scene-stealing butlers (Scott Robertson, Blake Hammond) who speak and sing in unison, often while they’re serving breakfast and moving the furniture around.
Director Kathleen Marshall – whose husband Scott Landis serves is lead producer – plays it like a drawing-room farce with running gags about Maria Callas and Leonard Bernstein, while upping the ante with superb casting. Douglas Sills’s impeccable comic timing makes the most of the dialogue, while tempestuous Renee Fleming is a deliciously flamboyant comedienne, clutching her Pomeranian, dubbed Puccini.
Relishing the slapstick, Jerry O’Connell is amiable, as is Anna Chlumsky from HBO’s “Veep.” Kudos to designers Derek McLane (set), Michael Krass (costumes) and Peter Kaczorowski (lighting).
Bottom line: it’s an amusing, fanciful confection – that plays at the Longacre Theater through August 2.