that community theatre production

My friend Kootch asked me to comment on RUMORS...specifically how I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Indeed, I did enjoy Neil Simon's Rumors the other night. More so than I thought I would. And I'm trying to figure out why. I don't much care for the script. I have a problem with it's essential motivation ... the host of a party is found dazed and with a bullet hole through his earlobe. Rather than seek help for their friend, a group of high profile, presumably intelligent people (doctors, lawyers, state senate candidate, etc), try to hide this fact first from each other and then from the police. If you can get over the reason for the play, you can likely enjoy it because Neil Simon, if nothing else, knows how to get laughs.

I suggest that Mr. Simon knew he had problems with the basic set-up as there is plenty of evidence in the script that he had characters attempt to bring up these very problems, but he managed to sidestep the issue at each mention.

So why did I enjoy it? I think that because the play succeeded in doing what it intended, which was, simply, to entertain.

And why did I enjoy it more than I expected? Probably because I wasn't sure how much I'd be entertained. One never quite knows the quality one will find in community theatre, but I did laugh at most of the correct moments, even knowing many of the jokes coming up.

Sure there was the usual community theatre kind of fare...forgotten lines, bad acting (oh, my poor friend Kootch...his "wife" was absolutely DREADFUL), and a set that seemed maybe a little too ambitious and unfinished, but for the most part the acting was quite good, and a set, after all, is only another tool to help the actors tell the story.

Good job, Kootch. Bravo, community theatre.