Phillyist Reviews... The Odd Couple

Let's just get this out on the table: producing Neil Simon's The Odd Couple is playing it safe. It's not that I don't love the play—I do—but so does everybody else. (Except for, I don't know, maybe August Strindberg, but he's dead and he doesn't count. On the other hand, Neil Simon might quite enjoy Strindberg and Helium.) And so just putting the play up on your marquee or season brochure is more or less a guarantee of your success, meaning I'm not entirely sure why Walnut Street Theatre invited me to review their production of the popular play.

But I'm sure glad they did.

The Odd Couple, even in its film or television versions, is just the trick for improving on a lousy day. But seeing a good production of it—or indeed, of any Neil Simon comedy—performed live can cure what ails ya. And The Walnut's production of The Odd Couple certainly lived up to expectations. Gary Marachek's Felix is sweetly neurotic, the kind of guy you want to hug and slap at the same time. And Avi Hoffman's Oscar is appropriately grumbly and hardened, perhaps not as big of a slob as we think of Oscar being, but sufficiently slobby when the vestiges of mess are cleared away. The two have a very real chemistry together, and it's easy to believe them as the two friends thrust together partly by convenience and partly by fate, who love each other and hate each other equally. (Ross assures me that they didn't have the kind of chemistry that Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick had when they did the show on Broadway, but that's a really unfair comparison for all four actors.)

Of course, Marachek and Hoffman are not alone onstage the entire duration of the play, and are joined there by, among others, the excellent Harry Philibosian (Speed) and Jeffrey Coon (Vinnie). Although Felix and Oscar are really the stars of the show, it's impossible to overstate the importance of a solid ensemble to make The Odd Couple really work, and the little moments where you see the "couple" interact with their friends (and the English sisters from upstairs, played by Madi Distefano and Leah Walton) make the play seem like one cohesive piece, rather than a collection of dialogues between two disparate personalities. It helps that director Bill Van Horn added a slew of blink-and-you'll-miss-'em subtleties to the action that enabled the characters to interact with each other, rather than just deliver scripted lines. The moments are funny and ring true and only add to the overall success of the production.

It may have been a safe choice for the Walnut, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a good one.

Gary Marachek and Avi Hoffman in The Odd Couple at Walnut Street Theatre, running through April 27. Photo by Brett Thomas.