Sep 1

Sep 1 The Odd Couple at Flat Rock Playhouse

Scott Treadway fans arise! Western North Carolina theater’s most precious human resource gets an entertaining showcase in the current Flat Rock Playhouse production of Neil Simon’s 1965 comedy hit The Odd Couple. Treadway plays Oscar, the recently divorced lout who decides to share his eight-room New York City apartment with his fastidious pal Felix, who is newly separated from his wife.

The comic consequences of this clash of lifestyles are well-known, particularly to us older theatergoers, from a popular 1968 movie adaptation with Walter Matthau (who had won a Tony for playing Oscar on Broadway) and Jack Lemmon and from the classic TV sitcom, with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, which ran on ABC from 1970 to 1975. Other, lesser-known versions have followed, including Simon’s own 1985 variation with two women as the main characters.

The original play is now very much a period piece, relying on gender stereotypes for much of its humor, but it’s so generally good-natured — particularly under Lisa K. Bryant’s direction — that the sexism feels mild rather than malicious.

Treadway’s interpretation of Oscar is largely responsible for the play’s successful visitation in the 21st century. His Oscar is less of an aggressive lout and loud-mouth than simply a man whose messy apartment is an expression of his attempt to make the best of his uncomfortable divorce. Neglecting his kitchen and cleaning is his way asserting his free will, even though the divorce, it seems, was not his idea. Treadway’s Oscar has a streak of wounded pride, and his comic bravado is a coping mechanism.

Motivational musings aside, Treadway’s is a thoroughly delightful and very funny performance: commanding but never overbearing, energetic without crossing into frantic, cutting but not cruel. Mostly, his Oscar is just a lot of fun, able to fire off zinger after zinger and make it all sound spontaneous and natural.

Scott Cote and Scott Treadway in *The Odd Couple* at Flat Rock Playhouse.

Treadway is well-matched by Scott Cote in the role of Felix — a character also somewhat reconceived for this show. While Felix’s fussiness has always seemed something of a defense mechanism, Cote seems genuinely wounded, able to function at all only when cooking or cleaning. Under Bryant’s direction, he’s something of a little prince, a pouting, sometimes childlike man in crisis, with an upholstered swivel chair placed centerstage as the throne from which he hears the other characters’ entreaties. (Cote makes comic gold out of that swivel.)

Lilly Nelson, Scott Cote, and Glenna Grant in *The Odd Couple* at Flat Rock Playhouse.

Two of this princeling’s would-be subjects are the Pigeon sisters, Oscar’s British upstairs neighbors of perhaps loose morals who are invited for a dinner party with Oscar and Felix in Act 2. Having cast the svelte Treadway as Oscar and the none-too-tall Cote as Felix, Bryant smartly picked a couple of imposing comic actresses, Lilly Nelson and Glenna Grant, as Gwendolyn and Cecily. In their boldly colored high heels, supersized wigs, and vivid, mod-era costumes (by Alice Bryant), Nelson and Grant are more like delirious cranes than pigeons (despite their hilarious pigeon impressions), and they make their brief appearances the play’s most laugh-filled moments.

Alex Gossard, Paul Vonasek, Phillip Brandon, and Pasquale LaCorte in *The Odd Couple* at Flat Rock Playhouse.

Also on hand are Oscar and Felix’s four poker buddies. Paul Vonasek makes for an appealing Murray “the cop” — everyone’s slightly oblivious pal. Phillip Brandon is on target as a solid, no-nonsense Speed, and Alex Gossard delivers several well-aimed wisecracks as Roy, the accountant. (Having Gossard turn to the audience to deliver some of his punchlines, though, seems a kind of Vaudevillian move out of character with the rest of this production.) Perhaps most memorable around the poker table is Pasquale LeCorte as Vinnie, whose casual inability to read the room elicits repeated chuckles. I don’t usually name-check the casting team in these reviews, but in this case Dale Brown, CSA, and Andrea Zee filled each part perfectly, with Bryant’s collaboration.

As we expect from the Playhouse, the set (by Dennis C. Maulden) is excellent and remarkably detailed, and the lighting and sound and hair and makeup and costumes and props (a whole lot of them!) are equally professional. It all comes together to bring new life to Oscar and Felix and friends, and it’s a most pleasant reunion for everyone.

The Odd Couple runs through September 19 at Flat Rock Playhouse. For tickets and more information, visit flatrockplayhouse.org.

(Photos by Jeb Purcell)