Synopsis

Brad Leiman's story is about a stick-in-the-mud senior citizen, widowed, who falls for a similarly elderly lady with a free spirit. The lead couple's romance burns hot for two acts in wintry Winnipeg, across the Canadian border from Minnesota. But the man's and the woman's basic wants (and needs) are not the same. Failure to compromise puts the old gent in a tizzy when his new mate sets off alone on what was supposed to be a double-occupancy adventure. While the romantic soup is heating up, Leiman and director Paul Winick give E.M. Margolese and Abby Frank plenty to deal with. Margolese is a past-retirement greengrocer whose shop, like himself, is just getting by. Frank portrays a customer who happens by on Christmas Eve, and stays for Christmas dinner. Each needs companionship in a different way. Frank gives a solid performance as the woman who intends not to waste her last fling at life - and she has compelling reasons that make her decision important. Margolese is equally convincing as the man who can't bring himself to part with his old ways. Their eventual showdown is nicely done, hampered only by the author's shallow writing. The play has heart, but it's not always in the right place. Leiman isn't sympathetic enough to his leading lady, especially as the watershed moment approaches. On the other side, the script forces the leading man to play stupid for one scene too many. His well-earned emotional lesson, the heart of For Love & Chicken Soup, remains just out of reach at the play's end.