RUMORS is one of the prolific Broadway playwrights's most popular comedies and high on the perennial list of most-produced in high schools. It's a fast paced farce with 10 characters - 5 men and 5 women, and a full two-level set to represent an upscale home in Suburban New York. In the show, 4 couples are coming to the home of New York Deputy Mayor Charley Brock to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Charley and Myra. When the first couple arrives, they find Myra missing and Charley upstairs, suffering from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound to the earlobe. Desparate to avoid any hint of scandal, and prone to vicious and self-centered gossiping, they decide to make up a story about why Charley and Myra have not come down for the party - a story that spins wildly out of control as new couples arrive, the story keeps changing and the party guests try to cope with the escalating confusion. Two police officers arrive to try to sort everything out, but not before the 8 friends become hopelessly tangled in lie after lie.
WHAT'S GOOD
Typical of Neil Simon's comedies, this one if funny from page 1 and the laughs do not let up until the end. The writing is tight, consice and consistently entertaining. The required set offers great opportunities do design a BIG playing field to set these characters in - complete with two levels of doors to slam. The play is 20 years old now but still crackles with contemporary urban style. 8 of the 10 characters will wear elegant tuxedos and evening gowns.
WHAT'S NOT SO GOOD:
10 characters might seem a smaller cast than we've used in past years - that's correct. And of those characters, they are introduced to us in couples - so one couple is on from the start, another enters in 10 minutes or so, and so on until all 4 couples are on stage. The cops don't show up until the last 10 minutes of the show, and one of them is a close-to-silent role. The girls might think the guys get all the best bits - they don't, really, but I think the male characters do outshine the female ones by a bit. Sligo MS has done watered down version in the recent past. The set would be very expensive and take a huge amount of time, effort and manpower to erect. Many people see the language as a negative - there is a lot of bad language that would have to be dealt with. And, even though the play feels modern, there are some plot points that anchor it firmly in the late 80s - particularly theatre trips to a sold outt PHANTOM, doctors with answering services, and gigantic car phones that serve as unintentional weapons.
What do you think? Post comments!
I love this show! My sister was in it when Sligo did it and it is really funny. I don't think it would be as good as "Lucky Stiff", mainly because it is a very small cast and we have a lot of interested people, but it still is a good show.
ReplyDeleteThis one looks fun, but it might be overdone to some people.
ReplyDeletePlus the cast would leave many people feeling left out.
This seems like it would be great. I would love to do it next year.
ReplyDeleteI say that because I think it has too many parallels to You Cant Take It With You. A major one being that it is a top high school produced play, but also the new york fancy set, etc.
Also- I don't like watering down shows. If we would have to tone the language down, i think that is definetly a negative.
In all, keep it on the drawing board, but put it to the side for another year. This year, lets try something else.
-Aaron