Higher-brow critics may beg to differ, but if any play
deserves to be called a classic American comedy, it’s “The Odd Couple.” Neil
Simon’s study of the epic battle between Oscar Madison, slob, and Felix Ungar, fussbudget, is almost 50 years old now, and has been
in the public consciousness rather consistently since its Broadway debut in
1965.
My guess is that many people know these characters from the
movie version with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, or the 1970’s TV show with
Jack Klugman and Tony Randall. The play that started
it all doesn’t seem to be done all that much anymore, but Geva
Theatre is bringing it back in a first-class revival, with smooth direction, a
perfect set, and a dandy cast that peaks at the top with two noted Broadway
actors: Michael McGrath as Oscar, and Noah Racey as
Felix.
As the saying goes, this play needs no introduction, but just
in case you have spent the last half-century on another planet: Oscar, a
sportswriter, is recently divorced; his best friend Felix has just separated
from his wife and comes to Oscar in distress. Oscar invites Felix to move in
with him until he gets his life sorted out. Oscar is an easygoing slob and
Felix a neurotic clean freak, and the domestic fireworks begin.
Throw in four kibitzing poker-playing friends, a couple of
frisky English birds (the Pigeon sisters, in fact) from an upstairs apartment,
many jokes, and a bit of sentiment, and you have a play that still works like a
charm. Many of the jokes have gotten a bit cozy and predictable over the years,
the giggly attitude to sex is strictly 1960’s mainstream, and the ending is a bit
pat, but “The Odd Couple” still plays like gangbusters, especially when it is
directed and performed this well.
There is no point in doing “The Odd
Couple” without a good Oscar and Felix, and McGrath and Racey
are terrific — separately and together. Both men are probably best-known for
their work in musicals. McGrath was in the original “Spamalot”
and recently won a Tony for “Nice Work If You Can Get It”; Racey
has been in numerous hit shows and is also a writer, director, and
choreographer. They nail all of Simon’s
wisecracks, have a great knack for physical comedy, and add interesting nuances
to these well-worn characters and situations.
Racey’s comic timing can be
delightfully quirky, and McGrath’s is simply perfect, but both are not afraid
to suggest a little seriousness in their characters — very much to the point in
a play by Neil Simon, whose characters (to paraphrase one of Oscar’s remarks)
make the same sounds for pleasure as they do for pain. Felix is definitely in
great emotional distress when he enters, which Racey
plays convincingly; the other characters’ reactions to him are funny, but he’s
dead serious (for a while, at least).
And McGrath, for all his skill delivering the jokes, has a rather
serious mien that subtly suggests a man who, despite an easygoing approach to
life, has also had the emotional stuffing knocked out of him.
Director John Miller-Stephany hasn’t turned Neil Simon into
Beckett or Albee. “The Odd Couple” is still a laugh riot — even the set changes
are amusing. But with the play’s basic situation respected, it is a laugh riot
with just the right touch of substance.
Felix and Oscar’s poker buddies have brief but juicy roles,
and Brian D. Coats as Speed, Patrick Noonan as Murray, Robert Rutland as Roy,
and Drew Hirshfield as Vinnie all score. And as
Gwendolyn and Cicely, the Pigeon sisters, Jennifer Cody and Erin Lindsey Krom are hilariously ditzy (and nothing like their
namesakes in “The Importance of Being Earnest”).
The highbrow critics mentioned above may sniff at “The Odd
Couple,” and Simon’s work in general seems to be regarded as the theatrical
equivalent of TV situation comedies. But when the situations are still engaging
and the comedy still plays, what’s wrong with that? “The Odd Couple” has aged
well, and if you don’t mind my saying so, stands up at least as well as, say,
the best plays of Kaufman and Hart. Geva’s
opening-night audience laughed before the first line was spoken, and seldom let
up after that.
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 6, 2014.
