Broadway Theater Review: Living on Love with Renee Fleming

It's Not the Fat Lady, but a Weak Script That Ends This Play
By Lauren Yarger
Opera star Renee Fleming makes her Broadway debut, as, well, an opera diva, in Living on Love, a surprisingly underwritten comedy by Joe DiPietro (Memphis, Nice Work if You Can Get It), loosely based on Peccadillo.

It's hard to believe the DeAngelis couple of Raquel (Fleming) and Vito (Douglas Sills), ever had time to fall in love because they are so self absorbed. "Call me Maestro," Vito insists while his wife thinks she hears birds singing when entering a room where operatic strains are heard on the record player. "Oh, no. That was me," she smiles. A huge collection of snow globes, gifts given on return of a trip, shows just how many separations the couple has endured.

Raquel, just having returned from another tour, suspects her husband might not have remained faithful to his promise to, well, remain faithful. He claims he has been immersed in writing his autobiography, but ghost writer Robert Sampson (Jerry O'Connell) would disagree. He only has two pages of information after weeks of trying to get the maestro to sit down on one of the beautifully upholstered chairs in the gorgeous New York penthouse (designed by Derek McLane)  and concentrate on the project. His frustration is greater because he doesn't really care about the maestro's life --  he took the job so he could be near Raquel, whom he adores.

Raquel decides to hire Robert herself, when Vito ends up working for another editor at the publisher's, Iris Peabody (Anna Chlumsky) and the couple enters a competition to see who can finish first (even if all the stories contained aren't true) and start a new romance. Raquel's career might be over, but an upcoming tour that includes Fort Lauderdale, of all places, might be made more pleasant if Robert accompanies her. Meanwhile, a friendship develops between Iris and Robert.

If you can't figure out where this is going, you will be one of the few audience members for whom Living on Love isn't totally predictable. When DiPietro runs out of things to do, he has the couple's synchronized butlers, Bruce and Eric (Blake Hammond and Scott Robertson), deliver a lengthy pro-gay-marriage statement when they aren't singing opera while changing the set (direction is by Kathleen Marshall). Disappointing work from one of my favorite comedic book writers.

Stealing the show, more than once, is Raquel's little dog Puccini (played by Trixie, a rescue pooch with prior Broadway credits as Mr. Wuffles in Bullets Over Broadway. She is trained by William Berloni.)

While it's a treat to hear Fleming sing a few notes from time to time (and a disappointment not to hear Sills sing any), there's just not enough here to keep us entertained. And there's nothing anyone can do about it (to quote the statement made ad nauseum by the butler), even  Michael Krass, who designs flowing costumes for Fleming.

Living on Love has announced an early closing on May 3 at the Longacre Theatre, 220 West 48th St., NYC. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 pm; Wednesday and Saturday at 2 pm; Sunday at 3 pm. Tickets are $25 - $145: livingonlovebroadway.com.

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-- Homosexuality