What if Felix and Oscar were women?
Old Fort Players answer that question with their production of the Neil Simon comedy, “The Odd Couple, Female Version” running June 2 through June 4 and the following weekend as well.
This is the comic genius of the late Simon burnished with enough tragedy and heartbreak to give the play a sharper edge than the old TV show. One-liners blaze between the actors as a heartbreaking story of friendship and love unfolds.
THE PLOT
Florence Unger and Olive Madison quarrel and sling zingers as they try to find their places in the world of 1980’s New York City. Toss in a couple of divorces and stand back.
Director Angela Sanford summed it up.
“Olive is a messy lady, very laid back, and she’s taken in her friend Florence, whose husband left her,” Sanford said. “It’s like taking in a roommate or a spouse who’s a control freak.”
THE CAST
Tierra Griffith and Jennifer Pranger star as the slovenly Madison and the obsessive-compulsive Unger. Richar Abel as Sylvie, RaCayla Adams as Renee, Alicia Rodriguez as Vera and Cathleen James as Mickey are their Trivial Pursuit-playing friends.
Ty Clute and Michael Reed Randolph appear late in the story as Spanish brothers Manolo and Jesus Costazuela, whom Unger and Madison select for a singles dinner date.
This is the first time on stage for Griffith and Adams.
THE STORY
Olive is a successful, intelligent and wisecracking television producer. She is also a slob when it comes to housekeeping. Her slovenly apartment overflows with bachelorette detritus that washes out into the auditorium — wastebaskets full of trash, wine bottles, boxes of tissues and so on. The walls crawl with long-ago party deco.
Florence is a fastidious and soon-to-be-divorced woman who needs a place to crash while she worries about her future. Where better than in the apartment of her best friend who is her complete opposite in almost every way?
Enter their other colorful friends: Sylvie is trying to quit smoking and not succeeding; Mickey is a control freak; Renee is blunt and outspoken and the ditzy Vera is responsible for much of the play’s humor. Manolo and Jesus are the handsome brothers who live next door and are still learning to navigate the English language.
Simon tweaked “The Odd Couple” episodes and created “Female Version.” Take two marriages, toss them on the rocks, shake and stir by making the divorcees live together in the slob’s New York apartment, and you have a cocktail more potent than a straight-up martini.
Fans of the TV show starring Jack Klugman and Tony Randall will spot many similarities beyond Oscar’s loutish manner and Felix’s exasperating whining and obsessing. But it isn’t all laughter; there are tears as well.
“It made me cry,” Sanford said. “I was shocked.”
You’ll cry, too, if it happens to you.
ONE-LINERS
“If you want to kill yourself in a safe place, where do you do it?” Olive wonders. “Among friends!”
During the Trivial Pursuit game, Olive brings out sandwiches – one green, one brown. The others wonder what the green stuff is and Olive tells them, “It’s either new cheese or old meat.”
“It takes two to make a lousy marriage.” That’s Olive, again.
“If we were honorable men, we would have stayed with our wives and our families would have been miserable,” Jesus explains to Florence.
“It’s a funny, cute show,” Sanford said. “The men are hilarious.”
THE ENDING
We love to blow surprise endings, but this is a nugget too shiny to remain hidden: The show ends with the cast singing that Frankie Valli hit, “Big Girls Don’t Cry.”
THE CREW
Hair, makeup, costumes and props are by Amy Perez; Vanessa Holbert wrangles sound and lights, Dorothy Schulte and Sanford did the publicity and print, and Clute handled the set construction.
THE Details
“The Odd Couple, Female Version” runs June 2-4 and 9-11. Friday and Saturday shows begin at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. Adult tickets $15, senior & military $12, and students $10.
The OFP theater is located in downtown Fort Madison at 725 Avenue G. Send a Facebook message, send an email to [email protected] or call 319-372-9559 for more information. Like them on Facebook at Fb@oldfortplayers or visit oldfortplayers.com to keep up with everything that’s going on at the theater.