‘Rumors’ has it: Neil Simon’s farce is loud, frantic and often funny in Morristown

Overheard on the way into Rumors, a Neil Simon revival by Pioneer Productions that concludes this weekend in Morristown:

What’s it about? asks Gentleman One.

A dinner party where everything goes wrong, answers his friend.

That sums it up pretty well.

This play was Neil Simon’s lone attempt at writing a farce. It premiered on Broadway in November 1988 and ran for 535 performances. Reviews were mixed. Some dismissed it as little more than a fire hose of jokes and gags. The New York Times was blunt:

“Mr. Simon never creates the real sense of jeopardy necessary to make his premise spin into a riotous plot. Rather than do the exacting work required to craft a farce, he casually empties out a file cabinet’s worth of often tangentially relevant jokes. Rumors is to farce what a sitcom is to comedy.”

The New York Post was kinder, finding Rumors “light, frothy and fun … as significant as a cream puff and just about as nourishing. But beautifully baked and cunningly filled.”

Pioneer Productions’ ambitious revival of this physically, if not intellectually, demanding comedy lands somewhere between those poles. (Stars of Bravo’s Real Housewives get their turn, off-Broadway, in January.)

The story revolves around hosts Charley and Myra Brock, who seem to be AWOL from their own 10th anniversary bash. Charley is deputy mayor of New York City. When the first of four well-to-do couples arrives, they soon discover Charley in his bedroom with a gunshot wound. Myra is nowhere to be found. Neither are the servants.

Wishing to avoid scandal, each wave of guests tries to guard these ominous circumstances from the next. Of course, they can’t. As their speculations run wild, secrets from their own fractured relationships spill out, spiced by hearsay and half-truths.

Much of this is laugh-out-loud funny. And much of it is just plain loud. REALLY loud.

The first act is frenetic, bordering on hysteria. This is a five-alarm panic that might be funnier minus a bell or two. The jokes fly so fast, they sometimes overlap. Hiccup and you may miss one.

Act II is more satisfying, a payoff that merits a trip to the intimate theater at the Morristown United Methodist Church. Two police officers (Bradford Harris Harlan and Speedwell Amaechi) arrive, and insist that everyone take a deep breath and explain what’s going on. Bill Barry, playing the bombastic Larry Ganz character, must improvise. What he cooks up is delicious, if not nutritious.

Barry was impressive as crooked Uncle Louie in Pioneer’s last dance with Neil Simon, the gritty Lost in Yonkers in 2023. Rumors director and Pioneer co-founder Daniel Peter Vissers also helmed that one. Cast members Jon Beeler and Miriam Salerno (What the Constitution Means to Me) are Yonkers veterans, too.

This is a talented bunch who throw themselves — literally — into their latest challenge. EMTs should be stationed in the wings. One missed mark onstage and suddenly farce becomes a contact sport.

Whether you spread Rumors with friends will depend: Do your tastes tend towards melodrama or madcap? If your entertainment diet allows some cream puffs, you have three chances to indulge this weekend.

Pioneer Productions presents Neil Simon’s Rumors, directed by Daniel Peter Vissers, for three more shows: Friday, Nov. 13, and Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026, at 7:30 pm, and Sunday, Nov. 15, at 3 pm, at the Morristown United Methodist Church, 50 South Park Place. Tickets: $30-$35.