BenGiroux.com News and Events

Play Reviewed: Neil Simon’s Rumors
Theatre: Phoenix Theatre
Publication: Arizona Get-Out Magazine
Date: August 9, 2002
Review By: Max McQueen

Want to see a star being born? Rush to “Rumors” at Phoenix College to see Ben Giroux. We’d heard rumors that this East Valley young man is as funny as all get out. It’s true. Giroux is the best homegrown comedic actor we’ve seen in 20 years, since Bob Sorensen’s bow. It’s easy to be great in well-crafted roles in well-written plays. But Neil Simon offers neither to Giroux in “Rumors,” the playwright’s nod to “Noises Off,” Michael Frayne’s British madcap comedy. Giroux is one-eighth of an ensemble of four Long Island couples gathered for a 10th anniversary party.

With the wild-eyed intensity of Al Pacino, the razor-sharp timing of Groucho Marx, and the manic energy of Robin Williams, Giroux seizes his money-mad accountant and turns him into a human pitbull. We’re suprized director David Chorley doesn’t have him on a leash. It’s up to Giroux to make sense of the evenings outrageous proceedings. And so Giroux takes a deep breath, dives in, and with lightening speed runs through the whole bloody mess with a split-second delivery that would leave a tobacco auctioneer green with envy. He left Friday’s playgoers double checking the name of the human hurricane that took their breath away. It’s Ben Giroux. Remember it. Giroux has all the makings of major show business talent. That’s no lie.