High on the list of Things Which Probably Didn't Need Doing, we find the notion of Neil Simon rewriting and updating The Odd Couple. The play, originally done on Broadway in 1965, may well be the most-performed comedy of the 20th century with a good shot at a repeat in this one. If Mr. Simon had passed away and someone else suggested a new version was in order, we'd stone the guy to death. Nevertheless, this evening, I took in a performance of Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple, which opens this coming week in Westwood.
Press reports said that Simon had rewritten 75% or more of the play. I didn't keep score but it felt more like 50% and I found myself wondering if, in the rehearsal period, some lines didn't get rolled back to their '65 versions. For what it's worth, I felt that all the old stuff worked well…or will, once John Larroquette (who's playing Oscar) and Joe Regalbuto (as the other one) do more performances and find more ways to work the material. Tonight, there were occasional moments when they seemed to be struggling to even remember it all — which, again, got me to wondering if rewrites weren't still in progress. If so, they'd better hurry: The official opening is this Wednesday.
Some of what's new is merely updates or extensions of old lines. Felix, for instance, no longer sends a suicide telegram. Now, it's a suicide e-mail. Oscar still offers the poker players their choice of green sandwiches and brown sandwiches but now the line is followed by one of them explaining he eats brown meat because, "My doctor told me to give up red meat." (Don't worry. I'm not giving away any more punchlines.) A lot of it, I thought, was different but not better and about this, I have mixed feelings. Changing one funny line to another funny line is a plus, in that we've all heard the old ones eight zillion times. It's a minus in that we liked a lot of the old ones. I did, anyway. I sat there for much of the performance thinking, "That's not the next line…" Perhaps, if you don't know the play by heart, this won't bother you.
Other changes: The British Pigeon Sisters have morphed into the Hispanic Costazuela Sisters (Maria Conchita Alonso and Alex Meneses), inheriting a lot of malaprops from the male Hispanic flight attendants who filled that function in Simon's earlier, "female version" of The Odd Couple. The new ladies are very funny in a Jose Jiminez way, though somewhat more cartoony. Other parts of the text deal a fraction more openly — and unnecessarily, I thought — with the notion that there's something a bit homosexual about two men living together, acting a teensy bit like each others' wives. The closing moments, with Oscar and Felix making up after their big spat, are more serious, deeper and — I thought — vastly less effective. If this version has a life beyond the Geffen Playhouse, I'm betting a lot of this changes further.
I didn't like either Larroquette or Regalbuto in the first scene but warmed to them as the evening progressed, possibly because they were improving. I don't think either is ideally cast (Larroquette would probably make a better Felix) but they hit long stretches where they were as good as any Oscar/Felix combo I've seen…and I've seen a lot of them. Peter Bonerz, by the way, directed and seems to have done a fine job.
In spite of all my reservations and quibbling, much about this play is bulletproof and a lot of the new lines are quite funny…so I had a very good time. On the other hand, I think I would probably have had just as good a time if they'd done the old text with no update.