This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Jeff Malone: Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff and Richie, the podcast where we explore the latest shows we see, sharing our insights and opinions on the performances, storylines, and everything in between.

[0:10] Richie Grasso: In today's episode, we're discussing the new Broadway production of Left on Tenth, currently playing at the James Earl Jones Theatre in New York City.

[0:17] Jeff Malone: Whether you cannot catch the show in person or you want to expand your thoughts after seeing it, this episode is for you.

[0:22] Richie Grasso: And as always, we want to inform you that this episode will contain spoilers.

[0:26] Jeff Malone: So if you're ready to dive into this production, stick around with us.

[0:29] Jeff Malone: I'm Jeff.

[0:30] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie, and we're thrilled to be your hosts for this episode.

[0:33] Jeff Malone: But before we start the conversation about Left on Tenth, here are a few words from our advertisers.

[0:53] Jeff Malone: Left on Tenth, a new play by Delia Ephron, based on her best-selling memoirs, a romantic comedy about second chances in life and love, directed by five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman's. This Broadway premiere stars Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher.

[1:08] Richie Grasso: When she least expects it, Delia, beloved novelist and screenwriter of You've Got Mail, makes a surprising connection with the man from her past and falls into her own romantic comedy.

[1:17] Jeff Malone: What starts with an unlikely spark blossoms into a love story that seems to defy all odds in the face of life's challenges.

[1:24] Richie Grasso: Left on Tenth celebrates the messy, beautiful true story of two people with the courage to open their hearts again.

[1:30] Jeff Malone: Okay, so today we're talking about the Broadway production of Left on Tenth, and we're gonna start this conversation with our hot take, and I'm gonna give you my hot take first.

[1:41] Richie Grasso: All right.

[1:43] Jeff Malone: For me, this really didn't hit the mark. You know, the story has meaning. It just felt like it was missing something. And I thought overall, Peter had some of the greatest moments on the stage, but the whole piece kind of just fell flat for me.

[2:00] Richie Grasso: I agree. This wasn't quite doing it for me. I found many flaws with some of the direction, some of the acting and the choices that were made overall. I do think Peter was one of the stronger moments in the production overall, but this seemed to be not taken very seriously, unfortunately.

[2:16] Jeff Malone: And I, while I do think there's room for romantic comedies like this on the stage, it didn't quite do it for me here.

[2:23] Richie Grasso: Let's get into it.

[2:24] Jeff Malone: Let's do it. So when you're talking about just the idea overall here about what this is about, we've seen films do this a million times. People love this love later in life, fall in love after a difficulty or through sickness, through a divorce or death, and the silly whimsical tale of the New York City love traveling the world.

[2:46] Richie Grasso: You know, we've seen this before, and it works in film. I mean, some people don't necessarily like it, but I think a lot of people do. But we've also seen musical theater romantic comedy plenty of times. So what so to me, I look at this and think, oh, it's a play, romantic comedy, big stars. I don't know where it fell for me, but I actually think that all departments fell.

[3:11] Jeff Malone: See, I don't, I'm not looking at this and saying, oh, every single department here pulled their weight perfectly. I don't think this was very well written. I don't think this was very well designed. There was little to no direction. The acting was very stiff. Like I feel like across the board, it didn't really have one element stand out amongst the rest.

[3:34] Richie Grasso: Well, I feel like when you look at something like this and you have this premise of falling in love later in life again, one I think that's kind of catering to a specific audience right off the bat. So maybe a younger generation probably doesn't resonate with this piece. Not that there was many there to begin with, but right then and that, you're kind of just like, all right, you know, it is a piece that is kind of catering to an older generation.

[4:04] Jeff Malone: Do you feel that that came across in this piece?

[4:08] Richie Grasso: I know people of an older generation that even left this play feeling like, so to me, I don't know. I know some people have really loved it. I just don't think this really did it even for that generation. And I don't know because I'm not part of that generation, but there's a part of me that feels like this didn't really hit for a lot of people.

[4:27] Jeff Malone: And I think when you're dealing with Delia Ephron, she has a best-selling memoir, she's an accomplished writer. I even with those accolades, I'm still sitting here wondering why this is not working.

[4:40] Richie Grasso: See, to me, I don't think it has anything to do with what age you are seeing it or what age you are working on it. Something's not working here. Because I mean, I'm gonna even go with the title. Why is it called that? I mean, we know why it's called that because she makes a left on Tenth, and that's where she lives. But come on, like that was the best we could do for a title. I don't know.

[5:00] Jeff Malone: It doesn't seem and I'm gonna be honest with you, it seems like what this comes across as, I could be totally wrong, but what this comes across as is like, oh, maybe I should make my book into a play. Well, that's you know, Julianna and Peter, what are you doing? Oh, Susan Stroman's's got five Tony Awards. Let me call her. Hey, Susan, what are you doing? Do you want to work? Yeah, sure. I got nothing to do. It seemed like a vanity project to me for everyone. It seemed like we got nothing else to do, and there's money from someone. So let's just put this on Broadway because we got nothing else to do. I don't know. It's what it seemed like to me.

[5:34] Richie Grasso: Well, I feel like if we examine the autobiographical kind of nature in the storytelling here, that's where we have to kind of sit down and say, does that work in this piece? Because in film, it works a little bit more when you can kind of turn directly to the camera and like speak to them. This we've seen this a few times though now. Like, this is you have to kind of break that fourth wall with the audience now to kind of get that to come across. And that's where when we get into the direction, I don't think it really understood that portion of this.

[6:10] Jeff Malone: You take those moments of how the story would be told in the film where she would be kind of narrating. And that is where I think it felt a little confusing to me. But at times it seemed to me like we'll get into some design choices too, but like, oh, let's bring a dog out now at this point. Let's bring a second dog out now at this point. I don't know. That doesn't really, I don't know. It's not doing it for me.

[6:40] Richie Grasso: And I guess like the ultimate question when you actually kind of sit down and really look at this piece is like, did you personally find the story compelling?

[6:49] Jeff Malone: No, it feels like a story that I've seen. You know, I know she was ill, she met someone, they traveled, and she was very ill at the end. She got better, but she also lived, you know, the whole like Verizon bit in the beginning, like it was a little overplayed. It just seemed bit, it seemed like a lot of bits. Like, oh, and then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened. And to me, it didn't seem to have a nice flow because it was so like but I'll play, I guess I'll play devil's advocate here on this is a best-selling novel. What does it mean to actually be a best-selling novel? And then also turn this now into a play.

[7:26] Richie Grasso: In reality, you would sit and you would think, like, oh, okay, well, if it was a best-selling novel, maybe it's gonna be a best-selling play. Right, but not always. Like, see, I think like does a TV show make a good musical? Does a book make a good movie? Does a movie make a good play? You know, the different mediums that don't always work in different ways. Maybe someone wants to sit and read this book sitting on the beach all summer and dive into a story like this. Maybe we don't want to sit and see the abridged version of it on a stage. I don't know. Or it could have been a film. I mean, I could see maybe, but I don't know.

[8:06] Jeff Malone: We're talking about taking the work now to the next level, which is gonna get into the overall production of this, but like and to kind of set that up before we get into it, is what do we need to be doing to the work? So something to think about here to actually make it work for the stage.

[8:24] Richie Grasso: And that's what I kind of want to come back to after these few messages.

[8:32] Jeff Malone: Right. So I'll rephrase that question again. What do we need to be doing to a piece like let's call it the book that it was so that it actually works for the stage, and that's gonna get into the direction of this and the design and the actor performances.

[8:49] Richie Grasso: Well, where do I start, right? Because first of all, 90% of this show seems to be set in a library.

[8:56] Jeff Malone: Yeah, and then when you're, and listen, I love his scenic designs a lot of times, but then when we're in a restaurant or we're in somewhere else, and it's still the library with a projection on it, that is not working.

[9:10] Richie Grasso: So the library, she's a writer, she's fine, but there weren't enough locales. And you're using projections, so you could have done more with projections, maybe to show locale. Putting Julianna up there to narrate for long bits of time to the audience in what I'm sorry didn't seem very well acted and enthralling to me was very stiff.

[9:32] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[9:33] Richie Grasso: And so that it was also very linear. Everything was enter stage left, exit stage right, enter stage left, exit stage right. And we had these other characters, Peter Francis James and Kate McLuggage played multiple characters. That was funny, but was it what was needed? Did we need bit acting from the characters? But I do think like it kind of made it a little bit more lighthearted. It had some comedy in there that kind of works in those kind of like rom-com kind of films that we see.

[10:03] Richie Grasso: Yeah, but I think if you read between the lines, what I'm trying to say here is it took two supporting actors playing six roles each to save something in this.

[10:13] Jeff Malone: Where come on, yeah.

[10:15] Richie Grasso: I mean, to me, that's really digging from the bottom of the barrel.

[10:19] Jeff Malone: No disrespect to Peter and Kate, Peter, Francis James and Kate, because both of them were very, very good at what they were doing with all those wig changes and costume changes.

[10:28] Richie Grasso: But this should be Julianna and Peter carrying the show.

[10:34] Jeff Malone: I don't get the vibe that they're carrying the show.

[10:36] Richie Grasso: They're up there kind of getting through the show.

[10:40] Jeff Malone: I don't know. What I kind of look at a piece like this is this for lack of a better saying when we talk about something being lazy, is this is kind of that for me.

[10:54] Richie Grasso: It's like, let's just take the book and we're gonna put it on the stage now.

[10:58] Jeff Malone: That's not that I've read the book, so I don't necessarily know. So, like if we go back and compare it to something when like Back to the Future went on to the Broadway stage, and we kind of called it lazy because we just felt like it was a translation from film to stage, and they didn't do anything innovative.

[11:16] Richie Grasso: Not that everything really needs to be innovative, but I think if you're gonna stand out in such a big space like Broadway, you need to think creatively.

[11:26] Jeff Malone: And looking at this piece of Left on Tenth, I would say, why did they need to just do the full like, let's take this novel and put it on the stage? Why didn't they find something interesting in this novel and maybe they make a play about that?

[11:42] Richie Grasso: Like, what would it have been like if it was just her in the hospital and we didn't need to see the silly luck story? Because that's where it felt cliché and boring.

[11:52] Jeff Malone: And not only that, but you say lazy.

[11:56] Richie Grasso: Oh, totally.

[11:57] Jeff Malone: Like, do you know what I feel like could have happened in the Russell Room? I have no idea, but part of me gets the vibe like listen, I'm gonna put a lot of pressure on Susan Stroman's right now.

[12:07] Richie Grasso: Yeah, okay.

[12:08] Jeff Malone: That's why we're talking this way, because it is Susan Stroman's. So we're gonna talk every little bit of it other than because we're saying, like, hello, come on. We know what we've done. We have almost what one, two, three, four, five, six, fifteen producers top built here.

[12:22] Richie Grasso: Daryl Roth, Jordan Roth, a lot of producers.

[12:24] Jeff Malone: So, of course, the producers are part of this too. When I'm looking at Susan Stroman's, I'm saying, okay, five time Tony nominee or Tony winner. Susan Stroman's wins a ton of Tony Awards. Very, very accomplished director and choreographer from the past.

[12:39] Richie Grasso: New York, New York didn't do it.

[12:41] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[12:42] Richie Grasso: Left on Tenth now isn't doing it.

[12:44] Jeff Malone: And Smash is coming with her name on it too.

[12:47] Richie Grasso: And I'm not sure what's going on. And to me, I'm not trying to be disrespectful to Susan or this process, but there's a part of me that wonders were you in the rehearsal room for Left on Tenth? And did you run a scene and say, Great, Julianna and Peter? Oh, let's just take an early lunch. Great. Come back in an hour. Okay, we're back. Anything you want to talk about? Or let's just run it again. Why don't you just say this scene to the audience?

[13:15] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[13:16] Jeff Malone: Like that's what the where that's what it totally reads like. Like I'm not saying you need to be the next Hamilton and reinvent the wheel here, but I'm saying, like, maybe at some point there could have been. I was just disappointed in this, like, talk to the audience front and center the whole time, put everything center stage the whole time. No levels and any there was no levels, it was all one dimensional. It was just so like you said, lazy and like cash it in, get the paycheck, go home.

[13:44] Richie Grasso: Well, the cash it in is where I'm gonna make a bold statement here because when you have a piece like this, and I'm looking around at the demographic in the theater with me, and I'm saying to myself, Oh, do these producers just say, Oh, well, this is gonna make money no matter what, because it's let's cast Peter Gallagher in here. Let's cast Julianna Margulies in here, and they're just gonna come and they're just gonna flock and it's gonna be amazing.

[14:12] Jeff Malone: Well, yeah, well, you look at the grosses and you look at who's going to that theater, it's kind of working.

[14:19] Richie Grasso: Right, but I also feel like why would a producer invest in something like this? Did they really feel compelled by the story? That would be that would make me question what they're putting on the stage.

[14:31] Jeff Malone: Right. But I'm also looking at, yeah, you got two big names to do this. Maybe the older community wants something like this and is gonna go to it because they feel like this is like in the days of and Juliet and Six and all these other big shows.

[14:47] Richie Grasso: Maybe those are too loud and big.

[14:49] Jeff Malone: Right, and we can't, but we can't we understand that not everything needs to be Six and not everything needs to be and Juliet. But when I'm looking at a play, things do need to be stereophonic and they do need to be Hills of California. And I don't think that this should even be in the same category as plays like that.

[15:06] Richie Grasso: Right.

[15:06] Jeff Malone: When this just seems like I said earlier, some sort of the vanity project where everyone just kind of came in. And I'm gonna say something when we talk about some of the acting. I've spoken about Peter, Francis James, and Kate being really saving the show. Peter Gallagher is charming. Peter Gallagher is good at what he does, and he is fun.

[15:24] Richie Grasso: And he also, did you get the vibe watching him that he was like, I also know, audience, that this story is really simple. So I'm just gonna kind like I'm just gonna kind of do this character the best that I can and put a smile on and look good doing it. Like, don't be I mean, but then I feel like Julianna's up there acting like she's the next Lady Macbeth or something, like treating this like overly serious.

[15:49] Jeff Malone: Because I'm gonna say something. I've never seen an actress, I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but Julianna Margulies, please put your hands down for three seconds. She is using her hands in every single. I thought she was gonna fly away. She's using her hands. I mean, she's using oh my god. I'm not trying to say how many times can you how many times can you lift your arms and your hands up when you speak? You're like, and then I write here, and then I and you're moving your hands and your arms, and I'm like, please put your hands down for three seconds.

[16:18] Richie Grasso: We don't need to see your hands flying up and down at your side every time.

[16:22] Jeff Malone: That seems like what like a high school 101 where a director like tapes your hands to your side so that you stop moving them, or just it was just so distracting, and I'm like, I don't really know where her acting was here. I just found it to be so stiff. I was not really enjoying her performance, but I feel like it we even had to do like kind of dissect a certain part. Like we go into the hospital, they're trying to make comedic relief in the hospital, which I thought was just kind of weird, and then also like we're in the hospital, we're having some serious scenes.

[16:52] Richie Grasso: Listen, this is a major thing. We're watching her go through cancer treatment, and yeah, it's hard to watch, and it's sad, and probably many people in the theater have gone through something like that, whether it's themselves or with someone else, so yeah, it hits home. I think that's where the story kind of does get somewhat compelling. But when you really look at that scene and you're watching it and you're like, I don't know, this feels forced. Like, like come back to life, come back to life, Delia. Like, don't die, don't lose me. And I'm like, and I'm watching this and I'm saying, Oh my god, like, are they gonna keep making him say the same thing over again? Because like that was almost like 10 seconds too long, where it just needed to kind of like hit the mark and it didn't.

[17:33] Jeff Malone: Correct.

[17:34] Richie Grasso: And then it ends in this like cheery, like, we're fine, and everything's great again now. And I just I don't know, it's that feel like it kind of needed to be dramatized a little bit. Not that you like want anyone to pass away or anything, but I felt like there was no drama in the actual piece. Like, where like where was the moving moment for me? Like, did their love prevail at the end? And like now they're just like living that happy go lucky life.

[17:58] Jeff Malone: Sure.

[17:58] Richie Grasso: But like when I'm leaving the theater and I'm just like, all right, that's another play bill added to my collection. Uh like sure.

[18:07] Jeff Malone: Right.

[18:07] Richie Grasso: I mean, I'm gonna also say that I think older people would even want something a little more substantial than this. Because if you're leaving the theater, like, great, where are we getting dinner? I mean, I I like I this doesn't make a think it doesn't make you know.

[18:22] Jeff Malone: But that's why, like, when you you really look at this and you say, why did we have all of this buildup of their relationship? I don't think we cared enough about their relationship and them finding love later in life. Like, cool, cute, but like, why wasn't that like just the first 10 minutes of the show where like you're watching them on their date, and then like I didn't find the story to be interesting enough that like he comes across of her because she wrote an article about how bad Verizon is, and now we're like, um, okay, they're gonna reconnect on that.

[18:56] Richie Grasso: Sure.

[18:56] Jeff Malone: She did many more other things in her life that she could have been known for than just writing a Verizon piece, right? And then and then we spend all this time up until okay, now she gets cancer. That's where it was the predictable moment. Oh, okay, where we're gonna spend time, we're gonna fall in love that they're a couple, and then like now they have to go through something challenging. And what is it trying to come across as? Is it trying to tell us, oh, don't go for love is in your life at the end, or like go for love at the end of your life because you don't want to do it alone if you do get sick. But also is that the message? But also, is there something to be said about like even like the music that was played, like this will be and I'm like, okay, this one was terrible.

And I also look at it like when she's dying on the bed and this beautiful song started playing, and I and anytime that happens, I'm what are the lyrics gonna be here? And the first lyric is something I'm paraphrasing, but something alongside like a ship in a bottle. And I'm like, wait, what? Like, that is what are we doing here?

[20:01] Richie Grasso: Like, what a missed opportunity to have some beautiful, maybe an original piece of music, maybe a live musician comes out on stage as something that can take us into another emotion. I don't know. But I felt like that was a weird portion of it because when you see this as a film, that's why looking at it, and you're like, oh, they were trying to go for that. Well, the person who was even doing the music programming in the piece wasn't even really kind of gelling with what it should be. Like, if we're going for this you've got mail kind of premise of this, it just felt like no, you needed to think about this a little bit more. Like putting music into a piece should be enhancing it, not making you be like, why is this song playing right now?

It has nothing to do with what's happening on stage, right? And then I understand like the eclipse at the end, that's the moment for them. But I thought that was interesting. Like, I don't know. It just seems so far-fetched at times, nothing seemed rooted in reality. Then I get that with rom-com, like a lot of things aren't always like, oh my gosh, we want to escape their life to watch rom-com. Like, I get that. I just didn't think this really, yeah, but when it's like rom-com and we're like talking about Broadway and Broadway prices here, and it's like, I think we're gonna keep going to that. Like, I think people are gonna want something for the price that they're paying for, and I don't know if they get that from this.

[21:20] Jeff Malone: Right, right. Well, let's kind of transition to talking about our experiences of the show and some Tony talk potentials. Uh, but first, here are a few messages from some of our sponsors.

[21:29] Richie Grasso: All right, when we're back. We were talking about Tony Talk. I hate to say this, but I don't think I don't see one nomination potential for this.

[21:37] Jeff Malone: Unfortunately, I kind of agree with you. When you look at something like this, I also don't think it's gonna, it's not, it's limited, right? Because we already know there's a musical going in there after this, and Real Women Have Curves. And I look at this and I just say, we have a big season, and for new plays, we already have The Hills of California, which I think is gonna do really well. I would love to see Job in the Tony category for new play.

[22:08] Richie Grasso: And I don't have we seen another other new plays yet for the season.

[22:14] Jeff Malone: New plays are times from revivals.

[22:15] Richie Grasso: No, we'll have like Eureka Day and we'll have Cult of Love. I don't know about All In if that's gonna put The Picture of Dorian Gray and like I already think like all of these other plays are kind of just knocking this one out, right? I think this will be forgotten. I think this is gonna close in early February when it's supposed to close, and then I think we're just gonna forget about it. And I and I don't think Julianna is gonna really get anything for this. I and I as much as Peter might, I don't think he will. I think there's a lot of play contenders, especially when you have like Jake Gyllenhaal and Denzel Washington, and you know, they love Jim Parsons in Our Town, he can be nominated. So, you know, I just don't know if uh and Peter Friedman in Job and Cindy Lemon in Job, like I don't see it happening. And even with the design and overall, like I don't know. I just don't this is not Beowulf's best. I think he, you know, made it work for as best as he could.

[23:14] Jeff Malone: Um but when it came down to the direction, like I don't think there was a direction to the set that needed to be on that stage.

[23:22] Richie Grasso: Right. And this is a I'll take what you say here. This is one of those things where it didn't seem like the team worked together. Right. It was like, here's the set, see you later, here's some lights, see you later, here's a dog, see you later. Like I just see here's the sound design is a work. Cool. Yeah. Even like we've been to the James Earl Jones recently a lot, even like the lobby, the lobby didn't do anything for me. Like, and most of the time, like when we were there for like Gutenberg, there was some stuff going on in the lobby. Uh, Heart of Rock and Roll, stuff going on in the lobby, and it just didn't feel like there was anything other than like, oh, the senior citizen bus dropped everyone off at this theater, and hey, let's go on. And that kind of transitions, so yes, there was a lot of elderly people there, which is nothing wrong with that. Everybody deserves a seat in a Broadway theater, no matter what.

[24:16] Jeff Malone: Of course, and I get that. But at one point in the show, and you were with me at the show, about 30 minutes in, a phone goes off. And this is unfortunately very common, but it was going off and it was going off and it was going off. And I realized it sounded to me like an alarm, not a phone ringing, but an alarm going off. So I'm looking, people around me, I'm looking around, and I'm realizing that it's definitely the person directly behind me. Because where my head is, the back of the seat, and their bag is on their lap.

[24:43] Richie Grasso: Yeah, um, and the and it's an alarm and it's going off and it's and it's going for like over a minute, and now it's two minutes, and everyone's looking around, and people are starting to murmur. I've been completely taken out of the plot of the show at this point. And Usher comes over and I le and so I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but I said, ma'am, please silence your phone. Your phone is ringing. I knew it was hers, and she insisted it wasn't. It says, No, it must be in the show. It must be something going on in the show. And I said, Ma'am, I guarantee you this is not something going on in the show. And I'm saying this whispering while a show is going on. I'm literally turned around and I said, please check your bag and check and make sure it's not your phone.

She took her phone out. Oh, it's my alarm going off. It's my alarm, and it was her phone. And there was no apology, and there was no, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. And there was no excusing herself or nothing. And to me, I said, this is a big big problem because we are dealing with people who are not even conscious of if it's their phone or not, thinking it's something in the show, not checking. I even checked my phone, which was off just to make sure it wasn't mine. Where is the natural instinct and where is the idea to say if you are going to bring a piece of technology into a theater? I don't care if you're five years old or you're 500 years old. Your age should not matter when you bring a device into a theater because the ushers say multiple times to turn it off, not just silence it.

So if her phone was completely off, the alarm wouldn't have gone off. And sometimes alarms override ringers being on silent. I understand that. So this is a problem because then I totally missed like three minutes of the show.

[26:11] Jeff Malone: Yeah. And it's very disrespectful. And I'm gonna just make my stand on my little soapbox right now and say, turn it off completely. And if you have an emergency or something where you cannot do that, you need to get an aisle seat or where you can get up quickly, or you need to notify an usher that I'm expecting an important call and I need to step out, or you need to do the things that you need to do to not distract hundreds of other people sitting around you who spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars to sit here. That's my that's my announcement. I don't care what your age is, it's nothing to do with age. But to be to insist it's not your phone without checking makes zero sense to me.

[26:44] Richie Grasso: Yeah, I just don't know why we're not turning them off. And you know, Matt Koplik who just did a really great piece on like listen, you're not above everyone else. Just turn your technology off when you're in the theater. Going as far as like you're if you're having coughing fits in the theater, get up from the excuse yourself. Because you're ruining like a major plot point. I know when this was going on, but that was when we had to realize that she went into her own rom-com. And we really missed it.

[27:16] Jeff Malone: Yep. And I think that changed our whole opinion on this piece.

[27:21] Richie Grasso: Yep, because people are not respecting others. And if you think you're quiet or it's very tough. And I and I have to just say, we this art form will not survive if we can't, as human beings check each other and look out for each other and say, Hey, did you silence your phone? Hey, did you unwrap the candy? Ushers are trying to do as much as they can. But with this art form, opera plays, concerts, musical theater, orchestra performances, it doesn't matter what the live performance is. We are not gonna survive this if we do not check ourselves and check each other as well and help each other out to say, listen, this is unacceptable.

[28:03] Jeff Malone: Yep. Because it is, it's unacceptable.

[28:05] Richie Grasso: Yeah, it's wild. So anyway.

[28:09] Jeff Malone: Oh, look at that. And there's our alarm.

[28:12] Richie Grasso: There's our alarm exactly. Well, what are your final thoughts on Left on Tenth on Broadway Jeff?

[28:17] Jeff Malone: Yeah, this I would find is definitely an interesting piece added to the Broadway landscape. Uh this 2024-2025 season. Um it definitely did not win me over, but I'm curious to see kind of how it rounds out um in this season and how audiences receive it because it I I'm not really hearing the chatter that people are really resonating with it. So it was a miss for me. It fell flat. I don't really know what's happening with this, and I feel like there was potential for it to be better because I think anything has some potential to it.

[28:52] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[28:52] Jeff Malone: Um, I didn't find much here with what was being presented. And I wish them all well. I hope this is going to be something enjoyable for someone out there in the world. Um, but not a great show to me overall. You know, I I would not be surprised though if we see this like on the Hallmark Channel as a play, as like a film or something like that. I I wouldn't really see this getting done like regionally or anything.

[29:18] Richie Grasso: Not really, no. It doesn't really come across that way. So that's why it even brings that to it the next level of like, why what was the point? But so maybe the vanity project is the thing.

[29:29] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[29:30] Richie Grasso: Anyway.

[29:32] Jeff Malone: Well, that does wrap up our discussion on today's episode. We hope you enjoyed our deep dive into Left on Tenth. We were gonna share the link with ticket information in our description here. And remember, we want to hear from you. Continue the conversation with us on Instagram at Half Hour Podcast and let us know your thoughts on Left on Tenth. If you enjoyed our show, please leave us a review. Your feedback helps us bring more theater to you. And remember, you can listen to our past episodes and stay tuned for upcoming ones as well. Until next time, I'm Jeff.

[29:57] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie saying ta-ta for now.

[29:59] Jeff Malone: Bye.