We're still talking Odd Couple here, people. Richard Gersh writes…
I agree that seeing the original Broadway cast of The Odd Couple must have been great. Have you heard the story that Matthau wanted to switch roles with Carney at some point into their run, to keep things interesting? I think I recall hearing Matthau say such a thing on a talk show many years ago.
I did see The female Odd Couple when it premiered on Broadway, and for me the highlight was Lewis J. Stadlen and Tony Shalhoub as the Costazuela brothers. I envy the Canadians who saw — according to Wikipedia — a 1970 production with Martin Short as Felix, Eugene Levy as Oscar, and Dave Thomas as Murray.
Here is what I understand: When Neil Simon approached Walter Matthau about appearing in the play, Matthau said he wanted to play Felix and to invest in the play. He was allowed to invest but not to play Felix. There are people who claim that they saw a performance where Matthau and Carney switched roles. Simon said that never happened.
The Odd Couple opened on Broadway on March 10, 1965. Carney left in October and Matthau left a few weeks later…so the period of time when you could see the two of them together was about seven months and in the last month or so Carney was in the show, he is said to have missed many performances. Paul Dooley, who was playing Speed in the show, was Carney's understudy. Eddie Bracken took over as Felix in late October.
So there really wasn't time for Matthau and Carney to get so bored that might have switched roles. And Matthau, who said a lot of things that weren't true in an impish kind of way, may have been kidding.
It's been said that Carney did play Oscar in one or more regional productions years later…but though I've seen dozens and dozens of program books and posters for different mountings of the play with interesting leads, I've never seen one for Carney without Matthau. I'm not saying I don't believe it but I'll believe it when I see it.
I saw the female Odd Couple when it was in tryouts at the Ahmanson here in Los Angeles in 1985. Rita Moreno played the sloppy one, Sally Struthers played the neat one and I thought the gender swap was pointless and the play didn't work. I agree with you that the Costazuela Brothers were the best thing in the show.
I also saw Simon's 2002 rewrite of the original male version which played here in L.A. with John Larroquette (Oscar) and Joe Regalbuto (Felix) and I thought it was very weak. I'm not sure it ever played anywhere else. The Costazuela Brothers became the Costazuela Sisters and, again, they were the best thing in it.