‘Rumor’ is it’s a spectacular production…
BANG! A solitary shot is fired as Ken (played by Cory Rasmussen) and Chris Gorman (Erin Shepard) pull into the driveway of Charlie Brock, a prominent New York City politician. However, timing is not Brock’s virtue, as it is the day of his tenth wedding anniversary, and the incident has also included his wife leaving suddenly, and all the kitchen help of this well-off couple to be MIA as well.
What happens next is a chaotic over-two hour dose of hilarity, where characters, stories, and accusations swirl around. It is a play of farces, where everyone is trying to either hide what has happened or figure it out, causing mass confusion and even more massive laughs for the audience.
Director Rick Sherburne, in his third production with The Off-Broadway Players (Proof, Much Ado About Nothing) hit all the right marks with Rumors, choosing an incredible and cohesive cast that is believable, charismatic, and hilariously engaging. They strutted around the stage believably, mixing ’50s charm and feigned properness but still keeping it contemporary.
Every actor was a standout in the weekend production, from the whiplashed and cranky Lenny Ganz (Tyler Potvin) and his sassy, saucy wife Claire (Sema Gifford) to the nervous and womanizing Glenn Cooper (Allen Sloan) and his seductive and calculating better half Cassie (Brittany Lannan). Rounding out the anniversary party are the elder couple of the therapist Ernie (Greg Nelson) and his plain, cooking-show wife Cookie Cusack (Caitlin Carrigan).
The cast worked perfectly together, bouncing in, out and around the beautifully designed two-story set, trying to figure out exactly what happened, and, more importantly, what everyone thinks about what happened. This is the classic wealthy American tale of making things look sunny superficially, only masking the damage and delusion underneath the surface.
Every marriage in Rumors has problems that spill into the scene, from Cooper’s infidelity to Ganz’s communication issues. These problems constantly take precedent for Rumors’ characters, even with the issue of the host’s gunshot wound sitting upstairs.
While many in the crowded Comley-Lane Theater on UMass Lowell’s South Campus broke into hysterics over the course of the two-act production, it says a lot more about our culture and our effort to hide the very flaws that make us genuine human beings.
While their best friend is hurting from a gunshot wound (which happened to be little more than a gauged ear lobe), the cast has little else to do but gossip about others while at the same time hoping their own secrets will stay under wraps, it is the classic game of Russian Roulette of social consciousness.
The Off-Broadway Players hit it out of the ballpark with their newest production, a thought-provoking, and so funny it made my cheeks hurt. The months taken to prepare showed in spades, as everything from the set to the costumes to the dialog was done to the utmost of quality, and the rumor is true, Rumors is one of OBP’s best.
Sorry, there are no related articles, check out some random articles
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Leave a Reply