Tickets for the upcoming blockbuster revival of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple are on sale to the general public through Ticketmaster. The show, which stars the box office-golden duo of Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick and is directed by Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Wicked, Assassins, Take Me Out), opens at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre (256
West 47th Street) on October 27th after starting previews on October 4th.
Tickets for The Odd Couple have been on sale since July; in its first day of limited box office sales alone, the show raked in 7 million dollars. In
addition to the bonanza team of Tony-winners Lane and Broderick (who famously starred together as The Producers, and will do so again in the film version), the production will
feature Lee Wilkof (Democracy, Kiss Me, Kate, Little Shop of Horrors) as Vinnie, Rob Bartlett (Chicago, Little Shop of Horrors revival) as Speed, Brad Garrett ("Everybody Loves Raymond") as Murray the Cop, Peter Frechette (Eastern Standard, Our Country's Good) as Roy, Olivia d'Abo ("The Wonder Years," Wayne's World 2) as Gwendolyn Pigeon and
Jessica Stone (Grease, How to Succeed...) as Cecily Pigeon. Rehearsals for The Odd Couple are scheduled to begin on Septemper 6th.The Odd Couple
relates the platonic love story of two very mismatched men--neatnik
photographer Felix Unger (Broderick) and sportswriting sloven Oscar
Madison (Lane). Sharing a room, their initial warm feelings for one
another are tested when their lifestyles clash.
The original production of The Odd Couple opened
at the Plymouth Theatre on March 10, 1965, and ran for 966
performances. Directed by Mike Nichols, the show starred Art Carney as
Felix and Walter Matthau as Oscar. The show won 4 of its 5 Tony
nominations, including the Best Author (Play) Tony for Simon. A classic
1968 film version would have Matthau reprising his role as Oscar, with
Jack Lemmon as Felix. A revised female version opened in 1985, with
Rita Moreno as "Olive" and Sally Struthers as "Florence." There was
also a hit TV version that starred Jack Klugman as Oscar and Tony
Randall as Felix.The
revival will be produced by Emanuel Azenberg, Ira Pittelman, Jeffrey Sine, Max Cooper and Ben Sprecher. The Odd Couple features sets by John Lee Beatty,
costumes by Ann Roth and lighting design by Kenneth Posner.
The playing schedule for The Odd Couple will be Tuesday through
Saturday evenings at 8 p.m., with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2
p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are available through TicketMaster at
Ticketmaster.com or 212-307-4100.
