Audition Notice: Neil Simon's Rumors
Audition Notice: Rumors by Neil Simon
by Neil Simon
WHERE: Bernards Township Community Center, at 289 S. Maple Avenue in Basking Ridge, NJ, 07920
Rumors is a fast-paced and hectic farce from Neil Simon. It’s 1989 in the tastefully renovated New York Townhouse of Charley Brock—the Deputy Mayor of New York City—and his wife Myra Brock, whom we never see. The Brocks are throwing a 10th anniversary party for themselves and have invited four couples who are their closest friends. Charley’s lawyer Ken and Ken’s wife Chris (who is elegantly trying to kick the cigarette habit) are the first couple to arrive and find Charley in an upstairs bedroom, bleeding from a gunshot would to the earlobe, with Myra nowhere to be found. They unsuccessfully conspire to conceal the mystery and get “The Story” straight before the arrival of the other couples. Next to arrive are Lenny and Claire Ganz, who had a nasty fender bender on their way to the party. Then come Ernie Cusack and his TV cooking show host and wife, Cookie, who’s having major back spasms. Last but not least is vain and insecure Cassie Cooper, who is convinced that her husband Glenn is having at least one affair.
