Theatre Charlotte’s ‘Rumors’ is a mid-winter pick-me-up
'Rumors' runs through Feb. 11 at Theatre Charlotte.
This review by longtime Charlotte arts critic Lawrence Toppman was published by The Charlotte Ledger on January 29, 2024. You can find out more about The Charlotte Ledger’s commitment to smart local news and information and sign up for our newsletter for free here.
Review: Nimble acting makes ‘Rumors’ fly in Neil Simon’s comedic farce
Becky Kirby (Claire Ganz), Steve Price (Larry Ganz) and Zendyn Duellman (Cassie Cooper) are New York socialites caught in a comedic conundrum during an anniversary dinner party. (Photos by Kyle J. Britt, courtesy of Theatre Charlotte)
by Lawrence Toppman
If you’re sick of the dreary season my wife calls “Janvember,” the antidote may await you at Theatre Charlotte: Neil Simon’s boisterous “Rumors,” performed by a fleet-footed cast that doesn’t try to disguise the fact that this comedy has nothing on its mind or heart.
Director Paula Baldwin keeps the cast flowing, stomping and staggering across the stage over two-plus hours, like a magician whose unbroken line of patter keeps you from watching the trick unfold. The actors respond with precision and enthusiasm in even the most unlikely moments. And there are many, for Simon wasn’t a gifted farceur: Of his 32 plays and musicals, this is the only one with so frivolous a subject and so fractured a dramatic construction.
Eight guests have gathered for a 10th anniversary dinner party thrown by Charlie Brock, the deputy mayor of New York, and his wife, Myra. The first couple to arrive find the unseen Charlie mumbling incoherently and bleeding from a bullet hole in his ear. His wife and household staff have disappeared, leaving pots of uncooked food sitting in the kitchen.
The guests dither about whether to call a doctor and the police, and how to render themselves legally unassailable if someone learns they’ve covered up a suicide attempt. (You’d think the two lawyers present would know that’s not a crime in New York City.) Gradually, all their ailments, phobias and idiosyncrasies come into play, from one woman’s obsession with a healing crystal to another’s lower back spasms.
I’ll tell you upfront that we don’t get a credible explanation of the mystery, though one guest pretending to be Charlie (the adroit Steve Price) delivers the night’s longest monologue in “reconstructing” the event for two skeptical cops.
The greatest farces have their own carefully constructed logic, convincing us that even the most far-fetched events just might happen. Simon doesn’t care about that. Characters come and go when he needs them to, not when they naturally would, and they overlook obvious things: One woman thinks she’s lost the earrings she’s holding in her hand. (And would a 30-year veteran cop have no idea what the deputy mayor of New York looks like?)
Simon wrote “Rumors” immediately after the semi-autobiographical “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Biloxi Blues” and “Broadway Bound.” It seems to have been a palate-cleanser for him, the equivalent of sherbet after a heavy meal; soon afterward, he dove into the emotional “Lost in Yonkers.” Though “Rumors” gets laughs, mostly through the broadly funny playing of this cast, it lacks the touching warmth of “The Odd Couple” or “The Sunshine Boys.”
Special kudos go to Joshua Webb, whose multi-layered and multi-portal set lets characters stay in motion easily but pop in and out as required. I also liked Angela Lubinecky’s artwork, displayed on the walls of that set and in the lobby. Though we never meet Charlie, we can tell he’s the hippest deputy mayor New York’s likely to get.
➡️ If you’re going: “Rumors” runs at Theatre Charlotte, 501 Queens Road, through Feb. 11. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $15-$30.
Lawrence Toppman covered the arts for 40 years at The Charlotte Observer before retiring in 2020. Now, he’s back in the critic’s chair for the Charlotte Ledger — look for his reviews about two times each month in the Charlotte Ledger.
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