Theater: Falling Short RUMORS

by Neil Simon

After analyzing himself via not just one memory play but a trilogy -- Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound -- Neil Simon said he wanted to write a play without depth or aspiration, one that was simply funny. So he has turned to old-fashioned, door-slamming, crockery-smashing farce. Given that his third marriage broke up as he was writing, it is not surprising that Rumors, which opened on Broadway last week, concerns the vulnerability of the marital relationship to gossipmongering by friends ready to believe the worst.

Any Simon work is eagerly anticipated: Rumors has a box-office advance of more...

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