Living on Love NYC Reviews and Tickets

"The play seems more like a forgotten bottom-drawer comedy from the 1930s, the kind that occasionally resurfaces at suburban dinner theaters...everybody in 'Living on Love' appears to be having a fairly good time. Whether audiences will share their joy is debatable."
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"The canned corn of DiPietro’s writing is pressed into mush by Kathleen Marshall’s clunky direction; the younger actors, who spend most of the play in a panic, are nearly unwatchable. 'Living on Love' is meant to be hammy, but it’s not even that. It’s a bland, synthetic dud: a ham-flavored turkey."
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"Plenty of punch lines, but the audience’s response to them seemed as canned as the material. This is only in part because the play is set in 1957 and feels as if it were written then too. 'Living on Love' is tacky and weirdly downmarket, as if divas and maestros could only be made palatable to contemporary audiences by turning them into buffoons."
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"There's nothing contemporary and too little that's consistently funny about playwright Joe DiPietro's refried serving of 'Peccadillo,' a minor Garson Kanin comedy from 1985. The new version does have the sporting turn of celebrated lyric soprano Renee Fleming. But when she is not onstage, the fizz quickly evaporates."
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"Joe DiPietro’s comedy is an airy spoof of a famed soprano and her temperamental husband...It’s all very charming until the ill-advised saccharine payoff which has half the audience cheering and the other half wondering how long we have to put up with yet more shameless pandering to the social zeitgeist."
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"It isn’t funny. Not even slightly so. Indeed, it’s so unfunny as to make the viewer despair of ever laughing again, much as a starving man might despair of ever eating again. 'Living on Love' originated at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, whose directors really should have known better than to send it to Broadway to die. "
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"DiPietro’s script is so inside in its opera jokes that you may find yourself gasping for air, though probably not from the laughs that director Kathleen Marshall works overtime extracting. It’s possible to imagine this as the perfect diversion for a summer evening. But on Broadway, it’s piffle, forgotten by the time you reach the corner."
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"The new Broadway comedy 'Living on Love' isn’t just filled with clichés — it revels in them. This is a show that has its cake, eats it, and then rubs whipped cream all over its face. It’s all shamelessly silly, and it works: In Joe DiPietro’s play, broad jokes and shameless hamming make for a guilty pleasure."
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"Mixed-up romantic couples and larger-than-life eccentrics are meant to ignite bright comic fireworks. But too many lame jokes and broad-as-a-barn performances extinguish any chance of that. I laughed twice. That’s not much for two hours at Broadway prices."
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"Directed with Technicolor flair by Kathleen Marshall , 'Living on Love' might have been enjoyable were it not for the complete emptiness of the piece itself. Although reminiscent of the screwball film comedies of the 1930s, it never moves beyond a simple, static scenario."
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"Rather than a madcap farce or a heartfelt tribute to opera, 'Living on Love' comes off more like a mildly funny sitcom pilot: The premise is solid, but the writing hasn't hit its stride, nor have the performers entirely taken ownership of their roles...'Living on Love' misses the mark."
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"Arrives on Broadway amid a resurgence in farces and comedies, which the critics don’t much like but audiences adore. In the case of 'Living on Love,' it’s best to trust the audiences and not the critics, who never appreciate the difficult art of creating a good laugh."
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"How do you deliver a pitch-perfect performance when the writer keeps giving you flat notes? This is the conundrum faced by the cast of 'Living On Love.' Playwright DiPietro provides a few sharper lines, but not enough to sustain...Still, director Kathleen Marshall keeps the pace brisk, and her actors are infectiously game."
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"'Living on Love,' another example of a well-crafted triviality without subtext or a thought in its head beyond trying too hard to entertain...The production has the broad, exaggerated physicality of a comic musical -- albeit, perhaps, one most comfortable as larky summer theater."
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"A little knowledge of opera helps, but it’s not key to admiring the frothy and fizzy 'Living on Love,' in which soprano Renée Fleming makes her Broadway debut -- you’re apt to enjoy the celebrated diva in this send-up of celebrated divas, even if the in-jokes about Maria Callas pass you by."
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"The play is directed with comedic aplomb by Kathleen Marshall. The material could be accelerated and made into a farce, but Marshall never lets the comedic elements upstage the looney characters themselves. Stick around after the curtain closes on this satisfying, sweet comedy and you'll find a cast that returns to mug, unable to help themselves."
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"You might not expect Puccini to appear in full Diva garb at one point, but otherwise this play is as predictable as death and taxes. And similarly rewarding. Kathleen Marshall is a woman who understands the inherent musicality of comedy but not even her talents can make a dent on this plodding nonsense."
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"If you're a fan of Renée Fleming, then you will love 'Living On Love,' the new Broadway play about an aging opera singer starring the real life opera singer...There are moments of greatness - and truly funny insider jokes - but those are not enough to make this overly familiar and rather generic show feel as special as it needs to be."
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"'Living With Love' flies by...It's not exactly full of surprises, but the light comedic throwback is well executed by the cast and creative team. Director Kathleen Marshall has a knack for the piece's scale and the quick rhythms of its banter."
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"You could call the play featherweight, except that down can get pretty heavy...Right now, there’s no real sense of what Raquel and Vito have meant to each other over the years, so the threats of divorce don’t ratchet up the tension as they ought to. If Ms. Fleming and Mr. Sills could communicate this bond the merrymaking might just matter. It would also help if this oddly chaste sex comedy became rather sexier. In the meantime, though, there’s plenty to divert and amuse. "
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"It’s period fluff that borders on the cusp of door-slamming clichés, but artfully polished to hurricane velocity in a production of perfection that keeps the laughter loud and constant...a silly play served with perfection, a diner menu prepared with the flourish of a four-star chef. Think Spam flambé, and pray that it gets to Broadway."
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"'Gets better and better, especially during its playful second act...During opening sequences, Living on Love feels just too cornball to be palatable and true. It takes a short while to comprehend the deliberate absurdity of it all. Hence, camp comedy reigns supreme...In all, Living on Love (think about that title) is pleasant, diverting, and even, as the final curtain beckons, cute."
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"A sliver of a comedy...Despite the spot-on casting of the ensemble, the hero of the endeavor is director Kathleen Marshall, who has staged this minor piece of froth at a dead-run and lathered it with sight gags, well-timed blocking, and comic action whipped up to a frenzy. If not for Marshall’s interventions, and the arias and songs inserted by music oordinator Rob Fisher, the evening would be little more than a celebrity sighting."
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"A frothy, blessedly zany affair that is having the time of its life...Highly skilled, welcoming actors go for broke in a comedy whose knowingly improbable plot coasts on the currents of farce, near anarchy and sharp wit. This is old-fashioned laugh-making in the very best sense."
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"A thin but breezily funny farce done with great brio and panache...Silly but carried off with such aplomb, like the production as a whole, that the material’s insubstantiality becomes almost irrelevant...the play is really about top-shelf pros showing off, and that’s enough."
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"While I thoroughly enjoyed the show in the end, it took me a while to warm up to the rather creaky 1950’s humor. What won me over were the excellent performances by all six actors in this piece...Impeccably cast, sumptuously furnished and brilliantly executed technically, Living on Love is a thatrical joy ride in a classy 1950’s star vehicle with a 2014 turbocharged engine hidden under its hood."
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"This production, directed with a lot of gusto and charm by Broadway musical veteran Kathleen Marshall, does make people laugh—and laugh and laugh. It doesn’t have a lot on its mind, but it is indeed quite funny."
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