Rumors can cause chaos and fear or a series of hilarious incidents and laughs.
In the Wagon Wheel Community Theatre’s production of Neil Simon’s “Rumors,” the latter is true and the cast says audiences will want to see the play more than once as it’s just that funny.
“It’s quite possibly the funniest thing I’ve ever read. It’s ridiculously funny,” said Chuck Brindle, who plays local politician Glenn Cooper in the show.
Over a course of one evening, four couples are getting together for a fun night of celebration. From the very first second, everything goes haywire, Brindle said, and that’s followed by a lot of frantic attempts to fix, hide and cover up things, but no one’s talking to each other.
“It’s just absolutely hilarious, right up to the end.”
Glenn, and his wife Cassie, played by Hannah Carter, are the last ones to arrive to the party.
“We’re hardly involved, but we show up and at this point we’re the only ones who don’t know most of the things that are going on, and we have our own problems because our characters aren’t the best people but they’re really funny,” Brindle said.
The “rumor” is that one of the characters shoots himself, Carter said.
“So when the first couple arrives, they find a scene and make some assumptions about what’s happened because they really don’t know,” she said. “And there’s kind of this big mystery, so the play is a lot of this self-caused drama because they don’t actually know the truth of what happened and they’re trying to piece it together and they’re making up the worse-case scenarios in a lot of ways, I would say. It’s funny because they’re trying to keep their story straight but they’re getting crossed wires and making up a lot of wild things that different people believe, so it’s kind of fun to trace who says what and why.”
Director Melissa Jordan said “Rumors” is a classic farce with just ridiculous humor.
Production Stage Manager Carrie Vrabel said, “It’s a perfect example of people treating a relatively low-stakes event like it’s a very high-stakes event. That’s the type of comedy I would say it is. Overreactions.”
Brindle said “Rumors” is one of Simon’s later works. It premiered Sept. 22, 1988, at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, Calif. Some of Simon’s other works include “The Odd Couple” (1965) and “Barefoot in the Park” (1963).
Jordan said she was in the play in college and she has a lot of great memories of how fun it was and how much the audience enjoyed it.
“It was a little tricky just thinking through in the round because it’s supposed to have a full staircase indoors and we had to figure that out, and I’m so excited about the staircase we have built here, and Matthew Helpert, our technical director, executed that design and did it beautifully and I’m really excited about that,” Jordan said.
She said the show is very fast-paced.
“That is something that I love to direct, is just a very fast-paced, fast-moving show that the audience does not lose attention, that they’re just captivated the whole time,” she said.
Along with the four couples, there’s a couple police officers that show up in the play.
Along with Brindle and Carter, the cast includes Justin Weaver as Ken Ludwig; Adriana Klein, Chris Ludwig; Craig Knight, Lenny Ganz; Nicole Nusbaum, Claire Ganz; Tim Davis, Ernie Cusack; Katie Davis, Cookie Cusack; Kathryn Anders, officer Welch; and Ally Watkins as officer Pudney.
Jordan said the first couple to arrive to the get-together in the show are both lawyers. The husband tries to take control of the situation and make sure everything goes well.
The next couple to arrive just had a catastrophe of their own right before they arrive, which they try to hide from the host of the party who isn’t even there. The husband is an accountant and “probably the most rough and tumble of the group,” Jordan said. The wife is high society who likes to gossip.
The third couple is very quirky - a psychoanalyst whose wife has a cooking show on television. They end up being the help at the party rather than the guests, she said.
The Coopers are the fourth couple to arrive.
Most of them know each other from the tennis club.
Asked why he wanted to be in the show, Brindle said. “Because it’s a show. This is one of the most magical places in the world and you’re sitting in the most magical place of this magical place, and it’s always a blessing to be involved in anything that’s a part of this.”
Carter said Jordan being a part of a show is always a big push to be part of production.
“She’s super experienced and smart and good at what she does so it’s really great to be working with her,” Carter said. “I would agree that it’s just a blessing to be here. It’s really fun to be able to provide another source of arts and enrichment for the community at a more of a budget experience so that more people can be involved and more people can come and see shows and kind of be exposed to the arts and maybe get inspired themselves to get involved. It’s so fun. Every time somebody new joins the cast who has never a part of the show, there’s rounds of applause and we’re all so excited for them to be here.”
Brindle said there’s two people new to the Wagon Wheel Community Theatre for “Rumors.”
The Neil Simon show is the third production Jordan has directed. She’s also directed a murder mystery and assisted directed another show.
“I feel like this one has been really fun because this is a script that you can never get tired of listening. I knew this script so well by the first rehearsal and I was still laughing out loud when I was just reading it in my head. It’s just that funny. They’re still making me laugh and I can’t wait for hearing the audience laugh,” she stated.
Show times are 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27; 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29. Tickets can be purchased at the box office, by phone at 574-267-8041; or online at wagonwheelcenter.org.