For the remainder of the year, my San Jose and Peninsula theater reviews will be posted on Talkin’ Broadway with only introductions to those reviews on this site]. Please continue to https://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/sanjose/sj297.html for full review.

No modern humorist playwright can compete with the accomplishments of Neil Simon.  A winner of three Tony Awards plus numerous recognitions for movie and television works, he remained a theatrical institution for four decades.  While many of his plays were a product of his upbringing, conspicuously Jewish and set in New York City or its suburbs, others were neutral and could take place across the country.  Rumors, one of his many beloved plays, does take place in the New York suburbs, but it could be anywhere.

Debuted in 1988, well into his middle-age, Rumors departed from Simon’s bedrock.  He had written relationship comedies of many sorts with a focus on a clutch of well-defined principal characters and usually of the middle class.  This play involves an ensemble of ten in a wealthy suburb and is Simon’s first attempt at farce, embracing ridiculous situations demanding over-the-top acting.

Pacifica Spindrift Players, an all-volunteer community theater, has chosen well.  The play suits the cast which delivers an entertaining product, extracting humor at almost every turn.  For a small theater, Spindrift’s stage is very large.  All of the action occurs in the living room of a large house, and Alexis Orth’s white with black set is striking and effective.

To celebrate their 10^th wedding anniversary, Charley and Myra are throwing a party with four other couples at their home.  All are part of the Porsche/BMW-driving, swanky tennis club belonging, set of rich professionals – analysts, doctors, lawyers, and such.  The playwright needles the snobbish and conspicuous life style of this class of people as every reference to past events they’ve attended is a fund raiser for a charity.  Making the farce seem sillier, the guests are dressed to the nines, with women bejeweled in party gowns and men in formal wear.

Ken and Chris are the first arrivals and have to let themselves in.  Soon, they hear a gunshot, and Ken runs to the master bedroom to find Charley bleeding from a bullet through his ear lobe, which Ken assumes was a suicide attempt.  Myra is nowhere to be found, and the first rumor to be mentioned is that she’s having an affair.  Of course, we know that covering up an incident often creates more complications than facing up to the truth.  Ken’s instinct is to protect Charley, and he and Chris first try to hide what has happened from the other guests.  However, when the next couple, Lenny and Claire, arrive, Lenny starts sniffing it out…………