'The Odd Couple’: It’s the Felix Unger Show
Understated star: Dale Camden is the perfect Felix Unger in
Novato Theater Company's The Odd Couple' at the new Pacheco
Playhouse. He's flanked by the Pigeon sisters, Monica Norcia (left)
as Gwendolyn and Linda Ward as Cecily. (Provided by Gary Gonser)
By Mark Langton
IJ Correspondent
Article Launched: 10/18/2006 10:34:44 AM PDT
IF YOU GO TO Novato Theater Company's new production of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple" expecting to find a feel-good evening of non-stop laughter, the odds are good. But the goods are odd.
Judging from last Friday's standing-room-only opening night, director James Hurwitz couldn't have made a more popular choice to christen NTC's new Pacheco Playhouse than Simon's classic, character-driven portrait of America's most dysfunctional same-sex "marriage."
For one thing, "The Odd Couple" is arguably the most famous American comedy of the last 40 years. Starting with its original 1965 Broadway staging starring Walter Matthau and Art Carney, the subsequent 1968 movie version starring Matthau and Jack Lemmon, not to mention its reincarnationas 1970s TV sitcom with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, you couldn't find a more familiar story. Or, for that matter, an easier one to stage.
Not that there weren't obstacles. From all appearances, the new playhouse isn't the only thing that was hastily put together with spit and chewing gum. Indeed, in an inventive use of resources-at-hand, one can only marvel at the rich comic possibilities inherent in Hurwitz's decision to cast this most New York of stories - usually populated with Jewish character actors and Catskills comedians - with (let me venture to guess) an all-gentile California cast. Why, the potential for unintentional humor alone - indeed, the very idea - is enough to make you plotz!
If this sounds to some like it might also hold a potential for disaster, thankfully this plucky little company of players makes up in enthusiasm what it may lack in ethnic stylings. And with the formulaic punch combinations in almost any Neil Simon play (especially this one) - setup, pow; setup, pow; setup, setup, pow-pow-pow - they simply cannot fail.
From the opening scene of this now-familiar tale of unlikely roommates, one a neatnik and one a slob, the zingers start zinging. We come upon a Friday night poker game held in the living room (a Chinese food carton-decorated set design by Gary Gonser, made artful by the lighting design of Jack Gallivan) of sportswriter Oscar Madison (almost wholesomely played by Joe Peer). The jokes, often about guilt and food, are vintage Simon, as each of the poker buddies - Murray the cop (Toomas Rohtla), Speed (Mark Clark), Roy (Russ Dreosch) and Vinnie (Stephen Gustavson) - toss 'em out at every snap of a card.
For example, when Oscar comes out of the kitchen to feed the crew, he says, "I got, uh, brown sandwiches and, uh, green sandwiches. Which one do you want?" Murray: "What's the green?" Oscar: "It's either very new cheese or very old meat." Badaboom. Or when Murray complains that his wife has cravings for a corned beef sandwich and a strawberry malted, someone asks him if his wife is pregnant again. "No," says Murray, "just fat." Badaboom (crash).
But, if you listen carefully, most of the jokes actually center around the newly separated, suicidal Felix, even before he enters the scene. We hear, for example, Oscar recall the time Felix sent his wife a suicide telegram. "Can you imagine getting a thing like that? She even had to tip the kid a quarter." Murray again: "Hey, did you know Felix was once locked in a john overnight? He wrote out his entire will on half a roll of toilet paper." Oscar: "He's too nervous to kill himself. Wears his seat belt in a drive-in movie." And so on.
In fact, when you think about it, "The Odd Couple," as originally written, really is Felix's play. In a typical piece of Simon mischief, the prolific playwright flipped the script on the classic formula: It's the wise-cracking loud guy who sets up the gags, and it's the straight man that gets all the laughs.
Here is where the casting of local actor Dale Camden as the neat freak Felix Ungar was actually inspired.
Camden was an unlikely choice for the leading role, and reportedly came to some as a surprise. The actor has a habit of delivering every line like he's either just found a hemorrhoid or given another one up, tragically, for lost. In past dramatic outings - namely, as the morally-confused crook in Ross Valley Players' "Wait Until Dark" or as the depressive younger brother in RVP's "The Price" - this just made him morose and, well ... dull.
In "The Odd Couple," the very same tense, woebegone quality (Oscar describes Felix as "the only man in the world with clenched hair") makes him a perfect foil for the rest of the cast.
Even when Peer as Oscar delivers a laugh line, it is Camden's reaction that brings down the house. With his stricken look, his often-uncanny resemblance to Jack Lemmon and incongruously melodious baritone - not unlike Tony Randall's - Camden's Felix, it turns out, rescues what could have been an otherwise lackluster show.
Not that there weren't other nice touches. It is Monica Norcia and Linda Ward, as the head-bobbing, tittering Gwendolyn and Cecily (Simon's tip of the hat to Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest") who provide the second act's comic crescendo. They bring an almost musical quality to the cooing Pigeon sisters, especially Norcia (both dressed and accessorized to '60s perfection by Gretta McGovern). The poker buddy ensemble could pick up the pace a bit, but not so's anyone would notice, so why complain?
In fact, if you've ever wondered what it is that community theater lovers love, or what keeps them coming back to amateur theater, here's your perfect chance to find out. If you think your tastes are too refined, you are sadly, sadly wrong, my friend. You are, quite simply, missing out. Just try to spend two hours with a Novato crowd - theatergoers who fought for their theater, who helped sew the costumes, who painted the scenery, who all came together and put on their own show - as they cheer on their favorite daughters and sons.
See if you don't wildly applaud.
IF YOU GO:
What: Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple" by Novato Theater Company
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 4
Where: Pacheco Playhouse, 484 Ignacio Blvd., Pacheco Plaza Shopping Center, Novato
Tickets: $20; $18 for seniors (over 60) and students and $10 for children (12 and under); group discounts available for 10 or more
Information: 892-3005 or http://www.novatocommunityplayers.com/
Mark Langton can be reached at mark.langton@comcast.net.
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