Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple" at the Devon Theater stars Mark S. Cartier (left) as the fussy Felix, and Gene d'Alessandro (second from right) as the objectionable Oscar.
'Odd Couple': Classic recipe still needs fresh ingredients
For the second time this season, a professional Philadelphia theater - in this case, Mayfair's Devon - is producing Neil Simon's perennial crowd-pleaser The Odd Couple. The season's first production pleased critics as well as crowds at the Kimmel Center's Innovation Theatre, and featured local lights Peter Pryor as messy Oscar Madison and Tony Braithwaite as persnickety Felix Ungar, the poker-buddy newspapermen forced into close quarters after each is evicted from his marriage.
More relevant for this review's purposes, the Kimmel show also featured Gene D'Alessandro as Murray, the genial cop, one of the sextet comprising Oscar's and Felix's poker game. For its current production, Devon artistic director Michael Pickering has promoted D'Alessandro to the role of Oscar, and brought in Massachusetts-based actor Mark S. Cartier as Felix.
It seems a natural choice, with D'Alessandro's forceful, bearish presence an obvious contrast to the wiry, amphibian-faced Cartier. (Arnold Lobel's unlikely pals Frog and Toad made it to the stage this season too, in Arden Theatre's A Year with Frog and Toad. My guess is that costumer Robert Mikrut, who dresses Cartier in a green suit, just might have been influenced by The Odd Couple's pond-dwelling counterparts.)
Director Pickering isn't interested in adding anything new to Simon's timeworn comedy; if it's worked for 40 years, why mess with the formula? Thing is, for an old formula to succeed, it helps if all the ingredients are fresh. D'Alessandro's repetitive mannerisms - lolling tongue, nasal, braying laugh - probably play just fine in the context of a lesser character, and indeed, during the first act's poker game he leads the action with a brusqueness that overpowers his castmates and establishes his spot as alpha cur among a pack of housepets. But lolling and braying through three acts becomes very stale very fast.
For his part, Cartier shows none of the vulnerability that makes Felix tolerable but displays all the annoying tics, whining and mugging himself right out of authentic emotion. Sure, the roomies are supposed to be irritating, but if they were this irritating all those years ago, they would have been sent packing long before they even settled in.
Kristen Burke's and Jillian Ritchie's bubbly Pigeon sisters, Gwendolyn and Cecily, liven up the affair with their mod garb, party-girl giggling, and determination to have a good time no matter what. But even they can't be expected to pick up the slack created by a sagging second act and amateurish supporting cast (Bradley R. Helm's set, an alcoved, bookcased, and crown-molded Manhattan apartment, deserves a cast of pros).
There are sporadic laughs throughout The Odd Couple but, much like the Pigeon sisters, the audience is better off going in determined to have a good time, no matter what.
The Odd Couple
Through May 31 at the Devon Theater, 6333 Frankford Ave. Tickets: $20.
Information: 215-338-6300
