Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick have confirmed plans to star in a Broadway revival of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple. It will commence in October and probably play to packed houses for however long the two of them feel like doing it.
Before you ask: Lane is playing Oscar and Broderick is playing Felix, and I have a hunch (based on absolutely nothing) that at some point, they'll try switching off for a week or so. Back when Walter Matthau was Oscar and Art Carney was Felix, they never did…though it became an Urban Legend of the theater, with people swearing they saw a performance where that happened. The rumor was apparently urged on by Matthau, who liked to put people on, telling them it had happened.
None of the press releases mention it but this will not be Mr. Lane's first time as Oscar Madison, the slovenly sports writer. A few years ago, he did it for a staged reading that is available on audio cassette. Here's the link to it but I'm not necessarily recommending you do. I did, because I love the play even if I've experienced it once too often, and this version featured a batch of my favorite actors. Nathan Lane alone was reason enough for me, but you also had David Paymer as Felix, Dan Castellaneta as Murray the Cop, Linda Purl and Yeardley Smith as the coo-coo Pigeon Sisters, and others. Great play, great cast…didn't work for me. Part of it was the fact that it was audio-only. Part of it was that I've just plain seen the play too often. And part of it was that the material, as recorded, had an odd disconnect of audience laughter and things that deserved to be laughed at. It was like a real good show having an "off" night…though of course, nothing those people do could be without interest.
I don't know how the new Lane/Broderick version will be but I do know it won't matter. That thing will sell out in a jif. And then, a year or two later, they'll probably come back — with one of them in drag — and do Barefoot in the Park.