Neil Simon

Neil Simon’s Rumors

Neil Simon’s Rumors opened on Broadway on November 17, 1988, at the Broadhurst Theatre directed by Gene Saks. It ran for slightly more than a year before transferring to the Ethel Barrymore Theatre for a total run of 535 performances. The original cast of 10 included Lisa Banes, Christine Baranski, Ken Howard, Ron Liebman, Joyce Van Patten, and Jessica Walter. Veronica Hamel, Dick Latessa, Larry Linville, and Alice Playten were among the cast replacements throughout the run.

Baranski won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in an Play and Joseph G. Aulisi was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design.

The story:

At its start, several affluent couples gather in the posh suburban residence of a couple for a dinner party celebrating their hosts’ tenth anniversary. When they arrive, they discover there are no servants, the hostess is missing, and the host – the deputy mayor of New York City – has shot himself through the earlobe. Comic complications arise when, given everyone’s upper class status, they decide they need to do everything possible to conceal the evening’s events from the local police and the media.