STAGE REVIEW : ‘Rumors’ a Delightful Beginning

Neil Simon’s “Rumors,” now at the North Coast Repertory Theatre, is silly, frothy fun--pure cream puff. But what a delicious cream puff it is. And what a delight to find that director Daniel Yurgaitis and his 10-person cast are totally up to the manic, how-many-words-a-minute-can-you-say challenge.

The show doesn’t waste time with slow and steady plot development. It kicks off mid-crisis with a couple, Chris and Ken (Lynn Allison and Tim Irving), who are the first to arrive at an upscale party in tony Sneden’s Landing, only to discover the host upstairs with a bullet lodged in his earlobe, the hostess missing and pounds of uncooked food thawing on the kitchen counters.

Farce is a delicate matter. If Chris and Ken called the police or simply got to the bottom of things, the play would have been over, leaving nothing but a melted cream puff.

But nooooo . . . . Since Ken is lawyer to the host, Charlie, and Charlie happens to be a political figure--specifically, deputy mayor of New York--Ken feels obliged to hush up what may be a possible suicide attempt and pretend to the other guests that everything is all right.

The tales they tell make for the fun as Claire and Lenny (Karen Lust and Brian Salmon) arrive, followed by Cookie and Ernie (Rhona Gold and Eric R. Medlin) and finally Cassie and Glenn (Kelly Klaers and Joel Dorr). The catty gossip about dresses, rumors about dalliances, jabs at crystals, group therapy and general inter-spousal sniping keep the humor going, going, going until you’re gone.

The Old Globe Theatre premiered “Rumors” in 1988, after which it went to Broadway. The Globe’s “Rumors” was funny, but, despite a terrific cast (Christine Baranski later won a Tony as Chris), the laughs came with some strain. Simon was still working on the show through much of the run, and on opening night he had not figured out why Chris and Ken should be so anxious to cover up what had happened. Only later he made Charlie a deputy mayor, making the hint of scandal enough to drive the rest of the action. Also, Simon was still fine-tuning the jokes in the Globe production. Now they are all in place, killing the audience with rat-a-tat-tat speed.

One expects to make allowances for a small theater company’s production of a show that had been done just four years ago with a large company’s lavish hand. But, although Marty Burnett’s handsome set is nowhere near the size and sumptuous scope of the Globe’s, the downsizing is actually to the good here. Everything’s in scale. The smaller set keeps the action intense, adding to the fun. And the actors, all local, do terrific work in each of their respective parts.

Particular standouts are Irving and Salmon, who both play great hysteria in their own, very distinct ways, and Allison and Lust, who show great deadpan delivery as women who would rather be anywhere than where they are. Even the small parts of the police officers who come to investigate at the house are well cast, with Mark Taylor as a deeply skeptical officer and Gwendolyne Wagner as his gun-happy sidekick.

John-Bryan Davis’ costumes have to suggest wealth and high fashion, and they do. The lighting by Peter Smith works well, and the sound design by Marvin Read is smooth. This is a highly polished production by the North Coast Rep, an auspicious kickoff to the company’s 11th anniversary season.

“RUMORS”

By Neil Simon. Director, Daniel Yurgaitis. Set, Marty Burnett. Lighting, Peter Smith. Costumes, John-Bryan Davis. Sound, Marvin Read. Stage manager, Lisa Hancock. With Lynn Allison, Tim Irving, Karen Lust, Brian Salmon, Eric R. Medlin, Rhona Gold, Joel Dorr, Kelly Klaers, Mark Taylor and Gwendolyne Wagner. Tickets are $12-14, with $2 discount for seniors, students, military. Performances at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 7 p.m. Sundays, with Sunday matinees at 2, through July 25. At the North Coast Repertory Theatre at Lomas Santa Fe Plaza, Solana Beach, 481-1055.