A man walks into a tailor shop to have his suit pants let out and ends up sharing memories, loss and more with the tailor, while perhaps forging a new friendship. That is, more or less, the premise of A Tailor Near Me, currently running at Florida Studio Theatre’s Keating Theatre.

This two-hand play is by actor-director Michael Tucker, whom many in the audience may remember best from the TV series L.A. Law. (Tucker and his wife, actress Jill Eikenberry, were in the audience the official opening night at FST.) Tucker’s been busy writing in a variety of media lately, and, actually, the role of Sam, the customer here, feels—wait for it—tailor made for Tucker himself if he wanted to play it.

Sam (David Cantor) is a fairly successful writer who’s looking to adapt his suit because he’s gained a little weight and is anticipating, with sorrow, an old friend's funeral he will need to attend. The tailor, Alfredo (J. Paul Nicholas), fairly easily talks him into having a whole new bespoke suit made, which involves a number of visits for fittings and measuring. So, those repeat visits allow for the two—but mostly Sam—to reminisce about the past, especially when it comes to that soon-to-die friend, Robert, whom he first met in college.

The two forged a deep bond on a road trip out West, and eventually Sam, an East Coaster, moved with his wife to Los Angeles to work on a TV show under Robert’s supervision. But when Sam headed back East, the friendship eroded, and he’s still puzzled and pained to this day about why and how.

Alfredo seems a sympathetic enough ear, especially after he and Sam realize their shared Jewishness. (He’s Sephardic, from Argentina, while Sam’s heritage is Eastern European.) He’s a little less willing to air his own personal affairs, although gradually we do learn about his beloved wife, who’s beginning to show signs of a mental decline.

So, the pair getting to know each other, and perhaps more about themselves, is really what the play centers on, for 90 intermission-less minutes. The first scene feels overly long and heavy with exposition; you keep expecting a break well before it happens. And while the playwright, and the director here, Kate Alexander, do add some physicality to the piece (including with an extended Borscht Belt joke about yet another tailor and customer), A Tailor Near Me is still a lot of dialogue.

That didn’t seem to bother the audience on opening night. Perhaps, they did not wonder, as I sort of did, just why Sam is so confessional here, or if, just maybe, Alfredo has some sort of psychology degree in addition to his tailoring skills. (He sure seems able to interpret.)

Instead, perhaps they just related to the notion of two men well along in life and facing new chapters, with each other’s help. That story is told with humor and warmth, and Cantor and Nicholas make an effective duo onstage, playing off each other’s differences well. They’re aided by a set (by Isabel A. and Moriah Curley-Clay) convincingly cluttered with the tools of the tailor’s trade; and, in the end, by a suit from costume designer Madison Queen that makes all the tape measuring worthwhile.

A Tailor Near Me continues through Feb. 15. For tickets, call (941) 366-9000 or visit floridastudiotheatre.org