Beijing Playhouse's production of Neil Simon's hilarious comedy The Odd Couple comes to the Beijing stage April 4 through 27, 2008. It’s slated to show Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30 pm. Sunday shows start at 2:00 pm. It will be performed in English with Chinese subtitles.
Broadway Comedy—Tony Award Winner for Best Show
The Odd Couple is a 1965 Broadway hit play by Neil Simon, and was followed by a successful film and television series, as well as other derivative works and spin offs, many featuring one or more of the same actors.
The show, directed by Mike Nichols, ran for 966 performances and won several Tony Awards, including Best Play. The plot concerns two mis-matched roommates, one uptight and the other slovenly. Felix Ungar, a neurotic, neat freak newswriter, is thrown out by his wife, and moves in with Oscar Madison, a slovenly sportswriter. Ungar was played by Art Carney and Madison by Walter Matthau. Matthau was later replaced with Jack Klugman.
The Odd Couple concept is best described in the one-sentence treatment Simon submitted to Paramount. "Two men--one divorced and one estranged and neither quite sure why their marriages fell apart--move in together to save money for alimony and suddenly discover they're having the same conflicts and fights they had in their marriages."
In side-splitting Neil Simon fashion, roommates Oscar and Felix skip the honeymoon and go straight to the hilarious bickering. Talkin's Broadway says Neil Simon “was at the top of his form” when he wrote The Odd Couple.
Walter Mathaw and Jack Lemon made The Odd Couple famous on the silver screen. Oscar and Felix then became household names in the television series.
Director Rod Archer, taking his fourth turn at this American classic, delivers a happy light-hearted romp across the Beijing Playhouse stage.
“One of Broadway's busiest, breeziest comedies.”—Talkin’ Broadway
“A smartly crafted, zinger stuffed comedy with a big heart.”—Curtain Up Review
“Oscar and Felix provoke belly laughs.”—Theatre Mania
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