"Rumors" - by Neil Simon - Theatre Of Northeastern Connecticut, Inc. at the Bradley Playhouse (Putnam, CT.) - REVIEW
(Cover Photo: Dave Ring as “Ken Gorman" with Angela Foley as “Chris Gorman” in a scene from Neil Simon's comedy "RUMORS," now playing at the Bradley Playhouse in Putnam, CT. through February 8, 2026. Photo Credit: Jeanne Foley)
By Kevin T. Baldwin
METRMAG Reviewer
# 774-242-6724
“I don't think I could swallow past my shoulders.”
- ("Lenny") / Neil Simon
Theatre Of Northeastern Connecticut, Inc.
at the Bradley Playhouse
Presents Neil Simon's Comedy
"RUMORS"
Written by Neil Simon
Directed by Debra Leigh Wysocki
Stage Manager Kat Lundy
Cast Includes: Laura O'Brien as “Cassie Cooper,” Mark Smolak as “Glenn Cooper,” Preston Arnold as “Ernie Cusack,” Joan Stewart as “Cookie Cusack,” Angela Foley as “Chris Gorman,” Dave Ring as “Ken Gorman,” Nicholas Magrey as “Lenny Ganz,” Shannon McLoud as “Claire Gantz,” Joshua Eves as “Officer Welch,” Laurie Neal as “Officer Pudney.”
Additional Creative Team:
Set Design - Carl Mercier; Scenic Artists - Diana Lee, Maria Bessette, Amanda Bessette, Jasmine Gervais, Sandy Lazarou, Casey Stoelzel; Costume Design - A. Foley; Set Decoration - Nicholas Magrey; Props - Bonnie Theriault, Melinda Collelo; Lighting and Sound Design - Aidan Horrigan; Sound Operator - Jeremy Woloski; Lighting Operator - Wesley Goodman; Set Construction - Ty Collige, Jordan Miller, Nora Miller.
Performances:
January 30, 2025 through February 8, 2026
(Contact Box Office for Exact Times)
THE BRADLEY PLAYHOUSE, 30 Front Street (Route 44) in Putnam, CT. 06260-1942
TICKETS:
All seats reserved. Reservations may be made with a major credit card online at www.thebradleyplayhouse.org or by calling 860-928-7887.
BUY TICKETS
COVID 19 PROTOCOLS
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(Warning: The following review contains spoilers)
Kicking off 2026, Theatre Of Northeastern Connecticut (TNECT) at the Bradley Playhouse offers up Neil Simon’s comedy "RUMORS," yielding painfully funny results.
Featuring some exceptionally clever staging by director Debra Leigh Wysocki, the cast of "RUMORS" dependably performs the Neil Simon masterpiece of farce.
The TNECT cast of 10 executes (maybe a poor choice of phrasing) the arduous Simon material that requires great physicality which becomes painfully obvious and more apparent as the play progresses.
"RUMORS" opened on Broadway in 1988 and ran for 535 performances and eight previews.
The original production was directed by Gene Saks, the original cast included icons such as Christine Baranski, Ken Howard, Joyce Van Patten, Ron Leibman and his wife, the remarkable Jessica Walter.
Baranski would go on to win the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play while Joseph G. Aulisi was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design.
The Simon show is a masterclass from perhaps the greatest of comic educators of modern-day intelligent comedic play construction.
The humor is smart and instantly fires off like a rocket (or a bullet) with witty retorts to fervent one-liners to hysterical responses executed (okay, so it is definitely a poor choice of wording – yet also accurate) lightning fast.
When it gets to that point, as you find yourself laughing at one joke, you will probably miss the next joke because you will still be laughing once it strikes.
Culminating in havoc, "RUMORS" comes with mistaken identities, spectacular kitchen catastrophes, the plummeting of a "valuable" quartz crystal into a toilet, assorted stumbles, falls, door slams, gunshots, burns, rashes, sudden hearing loss...and, of course, bandages.
The TNECT cast at the Bradley Playhouse has a solid understanding of the above and does well presenting the irrationality and ridiculousness of the entire plot.
In "RUMORS," what begins as a celebratory event quickly turns into an evening of mass recrimination and self-preservation for four couples.
As the story unfolds…or unravels…it is May (not exactly sure what year it is but let’s go with 1988) and we are inside a posh Victorian mansion located outside of New York City, specifically in Sneden’s Landing, New York.
The (unseen) Deputy Mayor of New York, “Charlie Brock,” and his (equally unseen) wife, “Myra,” are celebrating their 10th Wedding Anniversary and are holding a swank gathering of close friends.
Ken Gorman (Dave Ring) and his wife, Chris (Angela Foley) are the first of several couples due to arrive at the house and, when they do, they find the house practically deserted.
Ring brings a lot of fun to the role, especially when expressing Ken's anxiety over his inability to try and control the immediate situation…which soon devolves into chaos.
As recently reformed smoker Chris, Foley amusingly serves not to decompress but rather compound Ken’s anxiety, along with her own, adding a nice round of “hiccups” to the character midway through the story.
Upon a closer check, they quickly discover that Charlie appears to have been mortally wounded.
As Chris begins to call for help, specifically to a “Dr. Dudley” (and remember that name as it will come up again) Ken stops her as it seems Charlie is still alive.
(Photo: Preston Arnold as “Ernie Cusack” and Joan Stewart as “Cookie Cusack” in a scene from Neil Simon's comedy "RUMORS," now playing at the Bradley Playhouse in Putnam, CT. through February 8, 2026. Photo Credit: Jeanne Foley)
Enter Lenny (Nicholas Magrey) and Claire Ganz (Shannon McLoud), also friends of the Brocks.
Lenny and Claire have just been in a car accident and, worried he might have injured his neck, Lenny also calls the aforementioned “Dr. Dudley.”
The above actually all serves more as “prologue” for the TNECT show because this is when the "RUMORS" really begin to fly. It isn’t long after the initial discovery of Charlie that people begin to try and cover up for both Charlie and Myra, and this leads to a blossoming effect where they begin to invent lies to help conceal the truth of other lies.
Confused?
Good.
It gets worse…or better…or at least funnier, depending on your point of view and ability to accept the preposterous nature of farce.
At the heart of the matter is the suspicion that Charlie and Myra were each engaged in some extramarital hanky-panky.
McLoud does a fine job with the character of Claire who has an acerbic wit, especially when aiming her sarcastic barbs towards target Lenny.
However, some rather “uncooperative footwear” caused the actress some imbalance issues during the January 30th TNECT performance where she stumbled a couple of times.
Magrey is a highlight as Lenny, with a firm grasp of the character requirement which, as written, has Lenny feeding off the responses and antics by the other characters.
With the above, the "Lenny" character comes with a high degree of difficulty as it is one that hits the stage from the outset like a freight train and rarely has a subdued moment.
Not only has Lenny been assigned some of Simon's funniest lines, but he also executes much of the more arduous physical comedy and has a ten-minute monologue at the end of the play.
(Photo: Nicholas Magrey as “Lenny Ganz” with Shannon McLoud as “Claire Gantz” in a scene from Neil Simon's comedy "RUMORS," now playing at the Bradley Playhouse in Putnam, CT. through February 8, 2026. Photo Credit: Jeanne Foley)
Next couple to arrive is Ernie Cusack (Preston Arnold), a psychologist, and his eccentric wife Cookie (Joan Stewart).
Although "eccentric" well describes "Cookie," it might just as easily apply to everyone currently under this Mayor's roof.
At first, Ernie and Cookie are kept in the dark on what has transpired before their arrival. Similar to Lenny, Arnold as Ernie contends with a substantial amount of the physical comedy as Ernie tries to maintain some semblance of composure once he and Cookie are advised of the situation.
Arnold also shows, however, that psychologist Ernie will probably be the one requiring intense psychological therapy before this night is over.
Stewart also has some marvelous moments with the physical comedy stemming from Cookie’s back issues.
More mayhem ensues just before the arrival of the final couple invited to the party.
Glenn Cooper (Mark Smolak) is a politician running for State Senate who enters this odd “house of pain” with his contentious wife, Cassie (Laura O’Brien). O’Brien and Smolak are quite effective as the embittered couple who are in dire straits even before arriving at this fateful gathering.
(Photo: Dave Ring as “Ken Gorman" with Angela Foley as “Chris Gorman” in a scene from Neil Simon's comedy "RUMORS," now playing at the Bradley Playhouse in Putnam, CT. through February 8, 2026. Photo Credit: Jeanne Foley)
For whatever reason, an effort is made to conceal and protect Charlie and Myra’s personal dilemma(s) from everybody else in the house.
This leads to a gamesmanship of recriminations and, once the "blame game" begins, everybody suddenly pretends as if they only just arrived and know nothing while blaming everybody else for what transpired just before they arrived this evening.
Then, after a mysterious caller makes matters worse, the police subsequently show up at the party.
As Officers Welch (Joshua Eves) and Pudney (Laurie Neal) begin to question everyone, the amassing of lie upon lie begins to get the officers suspicious of what is going on at the party.
Neal is fine but is not given much to work with by way of the Pudney character (a character one can almost sense that, when writing, Simon would either have loved to develop or remove entirely).
As Welch, Eves nicely handles the stereotypical Neil Simon veteran “cop” character (Think of “Murray” from Simon’s “Odd Couple”…only not so nice).
The build-up of intensity, as lies are elicited to help cover up previous lies, is a true farcical delight.
The TNECT turmoil leads to one of the most brilliantly constructed comedic monologues ever written for the finale of a play.
(Photo: Joshua Eves as “Officer Welch” strikes a pose with Laurie Neal as “Officer Pudney” from Neil Simon's comedy "RUMORS," now playing at the Bradley Playhouse in Putnam, CT. through February 8, 2026. Photo Credit: Jeanne Foley)
As for these four couples:
For those seeking it, don’t bother looking for any “woke representation” here…there isn't any.
The married couples in this show (including the unseen “Charlie” and “Myra”) all showcase well their upper-middle-class Caucasian privilege.
As written by the legendary Simon, it is hard to feel empathy for this pompous, self-serving, self-preserving, selfish bunch of wealthy miscreants...and yet, because they make us laugh so incredibly hard for two and a half hours, we do.
Maybe that was Simon’s intent or perhaps it is just how time now reflects upon these people of a different self-absorbed era.
In either case, the ego-pummeling they all wind up receiving as a result of trying to quash unfounded "RUMORS" seems - at least by today standards – to be exactly what they deserve.
The breathtaking single set design AT TNECT for Charlie and Myra’s lavish mansion takes up the entire Bradley Playhouse stage and provides the perfect ambience.
Lighting and sound cues were all well executed while costumes for the show vacillated from the men’s attire to the women’s gowns which (except for Cookie) made them look as if they were attending a 1980s’ high school class semi-formal.
As for Cookie, her eccentric attire was well in keeping with the character.
The TNECT ensemble at the Bradley Playhouse prove that "RUMORS" remains one of Simon’s most hilarious of comedies and the "RUMORS" continue at the Bradley Playhouse in Putnam, CT. until February 8, 2026.
The 2026 season from TNECT at the Bradley Playhouse continues with the musical “MATILDA" beginning April 24th and running through May 10th, 2026.
For tickets and more information, visit www.thebradleyplayhouse.org or call # 860-928-7887.
BUY TICKETS
Approximately two hours, 10 minutes with one intermission.
Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)
@MetrmagReviews
@Theatre_Critics
ABOUT THE SHOW
In Neil Simon’s "RUMORS" - Chris and Ken Gorman arrive at a fancy dinner party for their friend, Charley Brock.
They discover that all is not well, and that Charley has had an accident involving a shotgun and his earlobe.
This could be damaging to Charley’s reputation, as he is deputy mayor of New York City.
Chris and Ken’s friends begin to arrive.
As they attempt to cover up the facts, hilarity ensues.
Neil Simon’s "RUMORS" is a charming farce with lots of gags, twists, zingers, and zanies, but it also borrows from Simon’s life experience to depict the challenges, as well as the comforts, of married life. (STAGEAGENT)
ABOUT THE BRADLEY PLAYHOUSE
THE BRADLEY PLAYHOUSE is a 117 year-old vaudeville theatre in the heart of the Putnam antiques and restaurant district in the “Quiet Corner” of Northeastern Connecticut. Since 1991, THE BRADLEY PLAYHOUSE has been managed by the volunteers of The Theatre of Northeastern Connecticut, Inc. (TNECT). ABOUT THEATRE OF NORTHEASTERN CONNECTICUT (TNECT)TNECT produces eight main season shows per year and a number of special fundraising events for The Bradley Playhouse Restoration Fund. TNECT’s mission is to produce and sponsor quality theatre and entertainment for the residents of Northeastern Connecticut and the surrounding areas, to encourage the development of creativity through the support of local artists, and to support education and hands-on experience in the creation, direction, and production of theatre and the performing arts.
30 Front Street
P.O. Box # 71
Putnam, CT. 06260-1942
