Quick Take
Mountain Community Theater in Ben Lomond is presenting two different versions of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple," a female take and a male version. You could even see both in the same day, and the production runs through April 14.
There is not one “Odd Couple,” but several.
The original — you might say, the OG “OC” — was Neil Simon’s timeless 1965 play. Many might remember the movie version, starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon in 1968. Many more can recall the ABC hit sitcom from the early 1970s, and there were even a couple of later sitcom versions, the most recent starring the late Matthew Perry.
Mountain Community Theater in Ben Lomond is currently staging two separate productions of “The Odd Couple,” yet curiously neither of them are any of those “Odd Couples” — at least, technically speaking.
MCT welcomes audiences this weekend to see one or both productions that, despite their differences from the original “Odd Couple,” are every bit as genuine as that original. Both tell the same well-known story — friends who suddenly become roomies, which teaches them both just how wildly different they are in personality. And both were written by Simon, who during his heyday might have been the most famous writer — not just playwright — in America.
The two MCT productions both represent Simon’s late-career reworkings of what was his most successful play. In 1985, Simon rewrote “The Odd Couple” to feature women characters at its center — Florence and Olive, instead of Felix and Oscar. MCT wanted to present both the female and the male versions of the play, but the male version isn’t the original, either. In 2002, Simon, then in his 70s, decided to reinvigorate the original ’65 version of the play with more current references and updated dialogue that he titled “Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple.”
“They are both, absolutely, by Neil Simon,” said Simon Hayward, the director of MCT’s production of the female version of the play.
Most of the familiar storylines and characters of the original play exist in both of the more recent Simon revisions. But, said Hayward, most casual fans might not know that the two newer versions even exist.
“Neil Simon was very strict about not letting anybody mess with his scripts,” said Hayward. “And apparently he had for many, many years been approached by companies who wanted to put on the original version with a female cast, and he refused point blank. But in the end, he got to the point where he said, ‘Well, I guess I’m gonna have to rewrite it for a female cast,’ which is kind of interesting.”
The female version of “The Odd Couple” hews closely to the original play. Florence and Olive even have the same surnames — Ungar and Madison — as the original characters. Where the story of Felix and Oscar centered around their weekly poker game with their male buddies, Florence and Olive meet for weekly Trivial Pursuit with a circle of girlfriends (a clue that the play is a product of the 1980s). The original play’s Pigeon sisters — the flirty English neighbors who double-date with Oscar and Felix — become the suave Spanish-born Costazuela brothers in the female version.
In the MCT production, Florence and Olive are played, respectively, by Shireen Doyle and Zed Warner. “What I was really looking for, in that sense,” said Hayward, “was the dynamic of two people that were very, very different. But both were credible in their own right and they kind of brought out a certain sort of sympathy and tenderness in each other.” The male version, directed by Stephen Phillipps, stars Ian Dyer as Oscar and Jeff Dinnell as Felix.
The two plays are presented in repertoire at MCT’s Park Hall in Ben Lomond, through April 14. Four performances are slated for each weekend, including one of each play on Saturday. That makes it possible to see both gendered versions in the same day. During the plays’ opening last weekend, Hayward said a quick show of hands before the male version of the play revealed close to half of the audience who had already seen the female version: “So, if someone were keen to do it, they could see both shows on a Saturday, with a nice dinner in between.”
Both versions of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple” are playing this weekend at Park Hall in Ben Lomond. The male version is Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. The female version is Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. The plays run through April 14. Tickets $20-25.
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