Great play. Great direction. Great cast. Great design. Theatre 40’s intimate revival of Becky’s New Car, Steven Dietz’s unorthodox look at marital devotion and extramarital hanky-panky has everything it takes to make it one of Theatre 40’s most all-around fabulous productions in years.

Someone once told Rebecca (Becky) Foster, middle-aged wife and mother, that “when a woman says she wants a new car, what she really wants is a new life,” and though Becky (Jenn Robbins) may actually want a new car, she can hardly complain about the life she has.

Her husband Joe (Grinnell Morris) owns a successful roofing business, Becky herself works for one of her town’s biggest car dealerships, and her 26-year-old son Chris (Riley Introcaso) is a grad student in psychology.

Scratch beneath the surface, however, and things aren’t all sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows.

Twenty-eight years after her wedding day, there’s little if any excitement left in Becky’s marriage, her job is a bore, and her son is more than a bit of a moocher.

Then comes the evening when gazillionaire widower Walter Flood (Christopher Franciosa) pops by the dealership to order nine brand-new cars as employee gifts, and when Becky comments, “My husband always wanted one of these,” as in “He doesn’t want one anymore,” what Walter hears is “My (late) husband always wanted one.”

Becky (for reasons known only to her) doesn’t correct Walter’s mistaken impression, and when he invites her to a dinner party at his palatial mansion, she can’t find a way to say no (if indeed that’s what she wants to say), and the next thing you know, our heroine is leading a new—and double—life.

And the romantic complications have only just begun.

Playwright Dietz signals from the get-go, from the moment Becky breaks the fourth wall to hand a fresh roll of toilet paper to an audience member with a request to “put this in the bathroom when you go” that Becky’s New Car doesn’t plan on being just another comedic, romantic romp, although it is indeed both comedic and romantic, and ultimately downright touching for good measure.

And this isn’t the last time Becky will step in and out of the story unfolding on stage as easily as she steps from home to office and back (as if her house and her office were as side-by-side as they are on Jeff G. Rack’s gorgeous, stylish, three-distinct-locales set), just a couple of reasons why Dietz’s thoroughly unique romcom never fails to astonish and delight.

Another is Cate Caplin’s impeccable direction, proving as she did in T40s Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner that no one directs a performance-based play with more attention to detail and nuance than Caplin.

Equally essential to ensuring that Becky’s New Car works the way it should is finding the perfect Becky, one who will have us in the palm of her hand from her first hello, and the luminous Robbins not only fits the bill to an instantly endearing T, her Becky never ceases to enchant no matter how many commandments she breaks.

Franciosa plays deliciously against type as the engagingly eccentric Walter, T40 treasure Morris is salt-of-the-earth perfection as Joe, and newcomer Introcaso is a boyish charmer as Chris.

Dazzling up-and-comer Isabella DiBernardino as Walter’s pretty, pampered daughter, a scrumptiously sensuous Kristin Towers-Rowles as a down-on-her-luck middle-aged ex-debutante who’s had her sights set on Walter for years, and a hilarious John Combs as Becky’s widowed, sad-sack of a work colleague complete Becky’s New Car’s couldn’t-be-better ensemble cast.

Rack’s stunner of a set may be the design standout, but Michael Mullen’s costumes come in a close second (special snaps to a bevy of red carpet-ready gowns), with additional design kudos shared by Theatre 40 mainstays Derrick McDaniel (lighting), Nick Foran (sound), and Judi Lewin (hair, wig, and makeup).

Becky’s New Car is produced by David Hunt Stafford. Peter Miller is stage manager and Audrey Eck is assistant stage manager. Philip Sokoloff is publicist.

I fell madly in love with Becky’s New Car when it got its Southern California Premiere at Pacific Resident Theatre back in 2010 and I’ve been waiting nearly that long for another chance to savor its many pleasures.

Thanks to Theatre 40, that wish has come true, and then some.

Theatre 40, 241 S. Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills. Through June 15. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30. Sundays at 2:00.
www.Theatre40.org

–Steven Stanley
May 17, 2025
Photos: Gabe Tejeda

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Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Steven Dietz, Theatre 40