Neil Simon's classic comedy The Odd Couple rounds off the summer season at the Ivoryton Playhouse. Originally conceived by Neil Simon, who based the play on his brother Danny's true-life experience, The Odd Couple concept is best described in the one-sentence treatment Simon submitted to Paramount, who financed the stage play sight-unseen. "Two men--one divorced and one estranged and neither quite sure why their marriages fell apart--move in together to save money for alimony and suddenly discover they're having the same conflicts and fights they had in their marriages."
The Odd Couple, in all forms, is truly a popular culture phenomenon. Simon's wildly successful play ran from 1965 to 1967. In the summer of 1967, the play opened at the Ivoryton Playhouse starring the controversial radio and TV comedian Henry Morgan. In 1968, the play was made into a successful film starring Walter Matthau as unkempt sports writer Oscar Madison and Jack Lemmon as anal-retentive commercial photographer Felix Unger. Today, Felix and Oscar are known to millions from the 1970-75 ABC TV series based on the play which starred Tony Randall and Jack Klugman and can still be seen in syndication.
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