BWW Reviews: Encore Dinner Theatre Presents Superb Production of Neil Simon Comedy RUMORS

Rumors/by Neil Simon/directed by Michael Lopez/Encore Dinner Theatre and Club, Tustin/through June 30

What better place for an assortment of controversial characters to gossip and frolic than at a dinner party? The participants are famous within their own local realm as community politicians and their narrow-minded friends. It's a small town in New York state and mayor Charlie and his wife Myra are throwing a 10th wedding anniversary party. But we never see Charlie or Myra. At the very top, their friends Ken and Chris (Dan Acor and Tiffany Berg), the first arrivals, discover that some mischief's been going on : Charlie has been shot, with Myra nowhere to be found. What follows are the arrivals of three more couples and the police, and in between? A frenzied jumbo of crazy freak occurrences and spoken innuendos that liven up the party more than food or music ever could. It's a series of one fabrication after another. The only truth in Neil Simon's Rumors is its sheer sense of fun. It takes a super-skilled cast to pull it off. The play's a farce, so it's all in the timing. Without perfect timing, it dies. Michael Lopez has directed his 10 actors with the utmost nurturing and care, and the result is a nonstop absurd treat, richer than the 1000 Chocolate Chip dessert cake, at Encore Dinner Theatre in Tustin, now onstage through June 30 only. This is the first play they have produced in a while, as the offerings have consisted of mainly singers, a magician and other night club acts. Well, let me tell you, Rumors is a great dinner theatre choice, and this production should put the theatre once again on the SoCal map.

Plot elements are unimportant here; what's urgent are the split-second unpredictable flare-ups whether in word or action, that come fast, furious and funny. Funny is always the key word in Neil Simon. And yes, in Rumors, there's a laugh about every two or three seconds. And ahhh... the delightful physicality, the slapstick! OK, back to basics, if you insist and I must divulge more plot ... Chris and Ken are dumbfounded by what they find in Charlie's house, but are not at liberty to tell their other guest friends what has happened, because they're really not privy to the particulars. Was Charlie's wound perpetrated or self-inflicted? Did Myra play into it? Where is she? They don't know, so of course they cover up by making excuses, no, downright lying to Lenny and Claire (Jeff Lowe and Tracy Rowe), Ernie and Cookie (Robin Walton and Cleta Cohen) and state senatorial candidate Glenn (Darren Thomas) and his wife Cassie (Rebecca Bollar), all of whom start making their own assumptions about the absence of the happy couple and adding fuel to the fire with a barrage of unproven rumors. It's like Pinocchio's nose that gets longer and juicier with each little lie. When the police (Robert M. Tully and Lauren Brooke) get to the house, their reasons are totally not what everyone expected them to be. So, as in all good farce, it's one big joke at everyone's expense, and there's an accumulation, a snowball, a giant clump of a mess that makes no sense yet is pleasing nonetheless.

All of the 10 players are deliciously on target with their portrayals. Lowe as Lenny walks through the entire 2 hours with whiplash, Cohen as Cookie crawling on her knees with a bad back, Walton as therapist Ernie carrying on conference calls amidst all the madness, and Acor as Ken completely befuddled, insecure and victimized as the very first to find the victim. Rowe as Claire is sheer delight with her Megan Mullally-like voice and Berg makes a great inebriated Chris. Lowe's speech in Act II as Charlie is rapid-fire dynamic and hilariously executed. The entire ensemble is having a ball, and so is the audience. Lopez has directed with detailed skill and flair. Chris Caputo's set design of the ultra-modern house with its primitive artifacts, latest art decor and several doors - so important in farce - and costumer Jenny Senior's pretty gowns for the gals add just the right touches of upper middle class pretentious indulgence.

This is a perfect way to spend an evening, dining at Encore, partaking of their delicious menu of food and drink and enjoying Rumors which was born to be played in dinner theatre.

http://encoredinnertheatre.com/home/

photo credit: Stan Mazin

left to right: Robin Walton and Cleta Cohen

left to right: Tiffany Berg and Dan Acor

left to right: Jeff Lowe and Tracy Rowe

left to right: Darren Thomas and Rebecca Bollar

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