After
starting off as a Broadway stage play, then becoming a
movie, then becoming a TV series, Neil Simon's The Odd
Couple is set to become a Broadway stage play again, this
time starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, who last
appeared together on Broadway in The Producers, which
started off as a movie, then became a Broadway musical,
and will soon become a movie again. Playbill said on its
website Wednesday that the revival is due to open next
August -- after Lane and Broderick complete the filming
of The Producers -- with Joe Mantello (Wicked) directing.
The announcement immediately touched off speculation that
a film remake might ensue with the two actors in the starring
roles.
The Odd Couple centers on a pair of mismatched roommates,
one neat and polite, Felix Unger, and the other sloppy
and crude, Oscar Madison. The Odd Couple was a big hit
when it opened on Broadway in 1965. That production ran
966 performances before closing on July 2, 1967. Simon
rewrote the play with female characters (naming them Florence
Unger and Olive Madison) and the new version opened on
the Great White Way in 1985 and ran over eight months.
The original The Odd Couple was the source for a popular
television series and film. In 2002 the Geffen Playhouse
presented Oscar and Felix, A New Look at The Odd Couple,
an updated take on the classic. There was talk that the
production would transfer to New York, but it received
mediocre reviews and never made it to the East Coast.
