Florence and Oscar Go to The Odd Couples

Read Time:6 Minute, 27 Second

Mark Turvin | Goldfish Publishers | September 25, 2004

The Copperstate Dinner Theatre has put a spin in their season by presenting on alternating nights the original 1965 script of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple, featuring the now legendary Oscar Madison and Felix Unger, and the 1986 transgendered revival of the script that swapped Oscar for Olive and Felix for Florence. Inspired by this, I invited Julie Lee, Editor of On the Arizona Set to join me for a woman’s perspective on both productions.

Mark: This is your first time at Copperstate since appearing in productions for them before they moved to the Phoenix Greyhound Park from Max’s in Glendale. What do you think of their (relatively) new location?

Julie: While I’ll always have a (small) soft spot for Max’s, the new venue is awesome. Cleaner, newer, classier. Only drawback is that I never would have found it if you hadn’t been navigating. You always did like to tell me where to go…

Mark: You seemed quite happy with the meal options. We both agreed that this Prime Rib was one of the best you’ll find in a dinner theatre, and I thoroughly enjoyed the salmon on Friday night.

Julie: I hate to say this, but I recently had prime rib in a very well known, local beef “institution” . . . and this was better. The roasted potatoes were tasty, the rolls were great, etc. My mean-spirited companion forced me to order the chicken on Saturday, though. Readers, if you’re carnivores, go for the beef!

Mark: And this is the first time seeing their set. Reactions?

Julie: It’s nice. The décor was a bit odd, though.

Mark: It should be nice. It’s been the same set since it won an ariZoni for Peter J. Hill and Gregory Jaye in their production of Noises Off! Seeing Simon’s scripts back to back allowed me to see just how very close to each other they are.

Julie: True, but hearing them so close together made the alterations obvious as well. The female version was funnier than I thought it would be.

Mark: Call me crazy, but I was bothered with the changes he made between 1965 and 1986 to turn the guys into gals. Poker is replaced by Trivial Pursuit. The children are present in discussion, but they have been moved to summer camp to allow for Florence to live with Olive without us thinking that she’s abandoned them. Some of this is probably political correctness, but I’ve always felt that it is more distracting than necessary.

Julie: I don’t think P.C. was as big a concern in 1986. Both of the scripts are dated, and to me it ironically stood out more in the female version.

Mark: However, there are still plenty of jokes in both, and a lot for comedic actors to play with. Director Nöel Irick kept the pacing zippy, but she definitely directed the women in a different way than the men. I saw that she gave a lot more “business” to the guys than the gals. I’m not sure why this was, but the result was that the men had more “punch” and the women had more consistency. Neither result was detrimental, just different.

Julie: I agree.

Mark: The two sets of leads were definitely different in their presentations. The Friday night we went found a blowzy, yet surprisingly realistic Kathi Osborne paired up with a tightly wound live-wire of a Florence in Athena Reiss. What worked for me with these two was their rapport. They really worked well together. Also, Osborne tends to be diva-esque in her presentations, but here, Irick seems to have focused her on balancing with Reiss, so the relationship draws the laughs as much as Simon’s jokes.

Julie: Absolutely. They’re a perfect foil for each other. I was really impressed with Kathi, and Athena is so wonderfully, believably neurotic that I wanted to recommend a good counselor.

Mark: On Saturday, I felt a very realistic Roy Hunt lived in the scene as Oscar, while Terry Gadaire overemoted and rarely connected with those around him, giving a very presentational offering of Felix. Here’s where I felt the “bits” overwhelmed the relationship between the two men. In a Simon play, though, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Gadaire really played up the effeminate nature of Felix, drawing laughs from the implausibility of his obsessions. There was much more physicality with the men than the women, but this play allows for both possibilities.

Julie: True, but when the two leads don’t connect, the meshing of the ensemble becomes even more important.

Mark: The ensemble was mixed in my opinion. For the ladies, I found that I really liked [Lizz Reeves Fidler] as policewoman Mickey and Irick as Sylvie. Lisa Martina’s Renee and Kathy Donald’s Vera seemed to be playing at a different level of presentationalism than the others. As potential love interests Manolo and Jesus, Carlos Urtubey and Cuauhtemoc Aparicio were quite funny. The scenes where they worked together with Reiss and Osborne are some of the best in the show.

Julie: I saw the variances in the women more as quirks of their characters. The only thing that was distracting for me were the references to them all being in school together. The guys drew a little too much attention to themselves during their intermission bits, but they’re so adorable when the show starts back up that a girl forgets all about that.

Mark: Ironically, on the guy’s night, Donald and Martina portray the Pigeon sisters, and they’re better when working with this. Since their presentationalism was set against Gadaire’s, they seemed more in their element. Urtubey and Timothy Justin are the strongest of the men’s ensemble as Roy and Murray respectively, with solid performances by Scott Connelly and Gerry Loveland as Speed and Vinnie. They all really played up the slapstick nature of their group scenes.

Julie: I loved the Pigeon sisters, and the male supporting cast was very consistent.

Mark: Technically, the only thing that was a major problem was this consistent whine of feedback within Hill’s sound design. It’s one of those high-pitched noises that I thought would have been gone by the second night, but was still there and just as noticeable.

Julie: Annoying, but nothing they can’t overcome.

Mark: In the end, if asked which I would recommend over the other, I’d have to say I’m stumped. I really liked the relationship between Osborne and Reiss. Their work together wasn’t bust-a-gut funny, but more naturally humorous. Still, the script is definitely the weaker of the two. While I didn’t like Gadaire as much, I think Hunt was the best actor of the quartet, really getting inside the skin of Oscar, and the script is the superior of the two. This makes it difficult to choose one as better than the other. In the end, I liked both of them for different reasons, and recommend them both.

Julie: Heck, I’ll pick – women rule. You Go Girls!

Mark: Well, thanks for joining me. Next time, I guarantee you won’t have to work for your dinner as you did this weekend.

Julie: No problem. Writing is easy. Putting up with you two nights in a row was the challenge

The Odd Couple and The Odd Couple (Female Version)
Written by Neil Simon, Directed by Nöel Irick
September 24th – November 21st, 2004
$32.95 per person for Dinner, Show, Tax, and Gratuity
The Copperstate Dinner Theater, Phoenix Greyhound Raceway, (602) 279-3129