By Patricia Morris Buckley
SDUN Theatre Critic
The play stars Marion Ross, best known as Mrs. C in TV’s “Happy Days,” and her longtime partner, Broadway actor Paul Michael. This isn’t the first time they’ve appeared on the Globe stage in a Joe DiPietro play. They acted in “Over the River and Through the Woods” in 2000 at the Globe and at other theaters around the country.
At their urging, DiPietro wrote “The Last Romance” just for them. The show premiered originally in Kansas, but gets a new staging here in a deftly directed production by Richard Seer.
“The Last Romance” tells the story of Ralph, an 80-year-old widower who one day takes a walk to a different New Jersey park, a dog park, and falls for a beautiful woman named Carol. He starts to romance her, telling her of his love of opera, pretending that he too has a dog. His sister, who keeps house for him, is suspicious and cold to her brother finding someone else. Yet just as the romance is set to take flight, it’s not his sister but reality that brings it back to ground.
What makes the show work isn’t just the wonderful performances, but the rock solid script by Di Pietro, who just won a Tony Award for “Memphis.” It’s really funny. Funnier than most TV sitcoms. The laughs are hardier and more born of character than what TV audiences are used to—and nary an old age joke in sight. Using the metaphor of opera (Ralph once had the chance to be in an opera at the Met), the playwright points out that falling in love is easy, while being in a romance is rarely romantic at all.
“The thing about opera, see, is all the lovers want to do is be in love,” Ralph tells Carol. “But it ain’t ever that simple. Something always gets in the way.”
Ross is just what you’d expect from watching her for decades—sweet, funny and ultimately able to touch our hearts in a delicate and graceful way. But this show belongs to Michael. It starts with the character. Ralph is funny, a little bit crazy and ever the showman. He’s someone you’d probably try not to get in a conversation with at a park, but once you get to know him, he’d be at every party you’d throw.
The role could easily be cartoonish, but Michael is able to give Ralph so much humanity and boisterous charm that he feels real. His rumble-deep voice, overactive eyebrows and tired slumped shoulders say more about Ralph’s real background than all his witty quips ever could.
DiPietro adds a nice theatrical device in the part of the Young Man, who is Ralph as a young man. Joshua Jeremiah has no lines, but just sings opera tunes so beautifully, we can’t help be brokenhearted that Ralph never achieved his operatic dreams. The role of Rose, Ralph’s sister, isn’t as well written and Patricia Conolly is never able to give us more than just a nagging, two-dimensional old woman clinging to her brother a bit too tightly.
Alexander Dodge’s set is filled with autumn leaves, a park bench and a ground painted with opera scores—and it captures the spirit of the play perfectly. Bravo also to Charlotte Devaux’s costumes, which are pitch perfect as well.
“The Last Romance” is satisfying theatre with exceptional actors in the leads and a highly polished production. It’s the kind of show you wish would last forever.
“The Last Romance”
Through Sept. 12
Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, Old Globe
Tickets: $29-$62
23-GLOBE
TheOldGlobe.org
