Eight stars of Bravo’s The Real Housewives franchise will share two casts in a revival of Neil Simon’s Rumors, directed by Tony winner Zhailon Levingston, at the Newman Mills Theater in The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space. Previews begin January 9, 2027, opening night is January 25, and the engagement is limited to 14 weeks.
The first cast plays January 9–February 28: Lisa Rinna as Chris, Phaedra Parks as Claire, Stacey Rusch as Cookie and Dolores Catania as Cassie. The second takes over the same four roles March 2–April 21: Cynthia Bailey as Chris, Eileen Davidson as Claire, Carole Radziwill as Cookie and Candiace Dillard-Bassett as Cassie.
Seven of the eight will be making their New York stage debuts. The exception is Rinna, who made her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in Chicago and is due at the Broadhurst this holiday season in It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. The rest of the company has not yet been announced.
The play is unchanged. Simon’s farce sends four couples to a party at a well-off house in the New York suburbs, where the champagne is waiting but the hosts are not quite as expected: he is in a worrying state, she has vanished, and the police are on the way. What Levingston adds is the frame, staging the evening through the lens of the reality franchise.
“Without changing a single word of Simon’s brilliant text, we can reveal something new in the piece: the delicious chaos that unfolds when private lives become public spectacle,” Levingston said, adding that he had “long been baffled that this extraordinary play hasn’t received a major revival in recent years.”
Levingston won the 2026 Tony Award for directing a musical, shared with Bill Rauch, for CATS: The Jellicle Ball. He made his Broadway directing debut at 27 with Chicken and Biscuits at Circle in the Square and holds Obie and Lucille Lortel Awards.
The producer is Benson Drive Productions, led by George Strus, whose company also brought A Kidman Carol to Off-Broadway. General management is by Envoy Theatricals / Marty McGuire, and Emmy Steele is company manager.
Tickets start at $79. American Express Card Members have a presale through 9:59am on October 29, followed by a 24-hour TodayTix presale on Thursday, October 29. General on-sale is October 30 at 10am ET. The Newman Mills Theater is the 243-seat proscenium house at 511 West 52nd Street.
For more information, visit the official website.
