Santa Rosa Junior College Theatre Arts produced solely comedies for the department’s 2024-2025 production season, and they saved the funniest one for last. Its production of Neil Simon’s comedy “Rumors” is a wild ride, consisting of non-stop mayhem with sharp and witty humor that kept the audience laughing from start to finish.
Taking place in early 1990s New York, “Rumors” involves four wealthy couples celebrating their friend’s 10th wedding anniversary, only for the first arrivals to find the host alive, but with a gunshot wound in his ear and his wife is nowhere to be found. Chaos ensues as the couples try to deal with the potential scandal, making wild assumptions and absurd cover-ups based on what little information they have.
What truly made the show funny was the stellar comedic performances of the entire cast.
Maya Tuchband as Chris Gorman left a lasting impression after opening the show. Tuchband was incredibly animated throughout the entire performance and their line delivery, comedic timing and reactions to what was happening was constantly entertaining.
AJ Correia as Lenny Ganz was much the same. His facial expressions, physical movements and voice alterations kept the audience laughing.
Emerson Reynolds as Claire Ganz was another standout performance. Her character had inherently hilarious moments, but her commitment to the execution of witty banter and awkward situations stood out and made the instances where she is involved in the action consistently funny.
Those three stood out the most, but the entire cast worked extremely well with each other, and the way their line deliveries bounced off of one another ensured that the comedy landed every time.
The entire show was so tight-knit that finding a negative is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Any weak performance would have been the missing brick that brought down the entire production.
SRJC Theatre Arts’s production of Neil Simon’s “Rumors” is a hilarious fast-paced ride that shouldn’t be missed and ends the 2024-2025 season on an extremely high note. The entire cast showcased incredible talent portraying an eclectic group of personalities which ensured the comedy never got stale.
“Rumors” runs for one more weekend, with 7:30 p.m. performances on April 24-26 and 2 p.m. matinee performances on April 26-27.
