MTP “Odd Couple” a Winning Hand

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

It opens with perhaps one of the stage’s funniest poker games, and the folks at Mill Town Players are all.

It is so good, it leaves you wondering if the rest of "The Odd Couple," can match the pace. It does. Strong direction and an excellent cast, headed by Will Ragland’s “Oscar Madison” and Todd A. Janssen’s “Felix Unger,” kept the audience both laughing and anticipating the next laugh. They were not disappointed.

The plot seems simple enough, and is best described in the final lyrics of the theme song of the television version of “The Odd Couple:” “Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?”

One is an unkempt slob, the other a depressed neatnik, making it easy to predict the path of this odd union formed in misery and compassion until it fractures in arguments and frustration.

The story relies on attitude and friendships great and small, and nearly always works on the basis of characters rather than plot.

The poker game, which kicks off the show, starts without Oscar or Felix, but with the ensemble which glues the two together early and often. The rag-tag group, led by Tom Holahan as the cop, “Murray” (show shuffles the cards for “accuracy, not speed), Todd Monsell as Oscar’s accountant “Roy,” Dan Wilkie as the henpecked “Vinnie,” and Michael Friedman as the crankier-than-Oscar “Speed,” are the just-right collection of friends all guys wish they had – sometimes.

As a group they bring a light energy to the show, and it’s better for it.

When Ragland walks in with a tray of beer and a collection of sandwiches, green or brown and both look disgusting since they're constructed of either new cheese or very old meat (his fridge has been out for two weeks). Oscar opens a pair of beer cans spraying the table, floor and his guests (and almost reaching the front row), symbolic of a man who is not concerned with any manner of tidiness.

Ragland is the more menacing Walter Matthau version of Oscar, blustery and loud, hiding a soft heart underneath the gruff crust. Ragland, who is more often than not the director of Mill Town Players productions, is bigger than life in a role that requires it, and it serves the show well.

In the beginning of the first act, Oscar is the least concerned about the empty chair at the poker table where Felix usually sits. News that Felix is fueled by a phone call from his wife who says she has kicked him out and hopes he never turns up.

The poker team immediately suggests that Felix will do something terrible, such as take his own life.

When Felix finally arrives at Oscar’s apartment, he is very much alive but every bit the mess his friends feared. Janssen’s man of sorrow Felix is a shell of a man, and one who demands pity. His Felix is part Niles Crane, part Wally Cox, and a wonderful patchwork of twitches and other idiosyncrasies.

Janssen’s posture sells the grief, as well as breaking up the poker game, nearly emptying the room of his friends who depart like men leaving a funeral. This leaves Oscar to console Felix, first by massaging away his stress-induced neck spasms and even putting up with the “moose calls” of the allergic-to-everything Felix.

Oscar, who was also kicked out by his wife and now lives alone in the eight-room apartment on the twelfth floor, not only takes pity on Felix by inviting him to move in hoping it will relieve some of his loneliness. It sounds sad, but it’s funny.

And so, the odd couple is born, with a compulsive housekeeper, who cannot stop cleaning, and cooking, and a man who is accustomed to using his entire apartment as a place to collect dirty clothes and dishes.

The new poker games become more about the food Felix prepares than playing cards, complete with Felix’ demand that a coaster be used for all beverages. When Murray is asked where his coaster is, he replies: “I think I bet it.”

Such lines help make this play special.

But as Oscar grows more and more bitter about Felix and his increasingly irksome and fussy behavior, the humor gets a little darker. In a scene in which Ragland and Jenssen chase each other in a circle around the apartment in mutual disgust, the pair look like caged animals ready to do real harm.

The Pigeon sisters, Gwendolyn (Lucy Southwell), and Cecily (Hannah Morton), bring comic relief to the proceedings, and bring a lot of laughter in their limey versions of the Fun Girls from Mount Pilot. Southwell and Morton are a delight in their very British and slightly dim roles.

The early 1970s set by Cameron Woodson, complete with green shag carpet, shines in this production. Great sets are a hallmark at Mill Town Players, and this is another winner.

Director Reed Halvorson is a long-time fan of “The Odd Couple,” to the point that some of his former students say he is obsessed with the play. He even played Felix in a local production. In the director’s notes he wrote: “This style of comedy speaks to my strengths: humor rooted in real human struggle, relationships tested and deepened by love.”

He does justice to his love for the material in this production.

There is a lot to like about this staging of “The Odd Couple.”

But it’s important to note that Neil Simon’s original stage version, which debuted in 1965 at the Plymouth Theater in New York with Watler Matthau as “Oscar” and Art Carney as “Felix,” while sharing the same storyline and setting, has a slightly different vibe than the television version which features Tony Randall as the definitive “Felix” and Jack Klugman as “Oscar.” This is to be expected from 24-minute episodic television, which can build on long stories and characters.

Mill Town Players version of the stage play holds its own, and a highly recommended night at the theater. The show runs through June 15 at the historic Pelzer Theater. Tickets here.

Stage Manager - Carol Janssen

Scenic Designer - Cameron Woodson

Scenic Artist - Abby Brown

Scene Shop Foreman - Austin Dowling

Set Construction and Painting - Austin Dowling, Reece

Brandt, Abby Brown, Alan Russell, Cameron Woodson

Lighting Designer - Kaitlyn Detscher

Master Electrician - Tony Penna

Lighting Board Technician - Vivian Adams

Costume Designer - Cindy Lohrmann

Wig Design - Victor De Leon

Audio Engineer - Tammy Crabtree

Props - Belinda Garrison, Hannah Morton, Will Ragland,

Cameron Woodson, Reed Halvorson

Stage Crew - Jay Bearden, Cameron Wilkie