About that man in the other room: Live Theatre Workshop opens Simon farce ‘Rumors’

When the first guests — Charlie’s attorney Ken, and his wife, Chris — arrive, Myra and the house staff are missing and Charlie is unresponsive and bleeding in another room.

What to tell the other guests?

In Neil Simon’s farcical romp “Rumors,” little lies turn into big rumors, innuendo and all-out confusion as Ken and Chris try to conceal what’s behind the door.

Live Theatre Workshop Director Rhonda Hallquist says audiences should think of it as the game telephone gone horribly awry.

And in Hallquist’s hands, with a cast of talented and funny actors, the play, which LTW is mounting Jan. 6 through Feb. 12, takes hilarious twists and turns.

“This play could be done completely straight as a high comedy and it would be funny,” Hallquist said. “But I am blessed with a bunch of actors who also are good at physical comedy so there is going to be hijinks. They are bringing the funny every night.”

Simon wrote the two-act comedy in 1988 when he hit a personal rough patch in his life. He told the New York Times that he was processing a divorce and the death of his son-in-law at the time and felt the need to work. But he wanted to do something entirely different than the semi-autobiographical trilogy of ‘’Brighton Beach Memoirs,’’ ‘’Biloxi Blues’’ and ‘’Broadway Bound” that preceded “Rumors.”