Daughter Sharon escorts beaming director Andrew McLaglen after last night's performance of the Odd Couple....
When you see all those posters & photos at the Palace Theatre while you’re waiting for the movie, it’s pretty cool to see the movies that were directed by islander Andrew McLaglen, with a who’s who of stars from the 1900s under his direction.
So it’s pretty neat to still be able to catch one of his shows – I went to see the Odd Couple at the Community Theatre last night, and I hope you get a chance to see this play tonight or tomorrow before it closes. You’ll be glad you did.
Most of us have had a roommate at some point in our lives who was either as uptight as Felix (“Wow,” says Oscar, “I’ve never seen anybody with clenched hair”) , or as big a slob as Oscar. Something I love about live theater is that the playwright’s words come alive in some kind of new way each time a show begins, and this one is no different.
You can set aside the Jack Lemmon/Walter Matthau interpretations from the film, or the Tony Randall/Jack Klugman TV rendering, because Bo Turnage (Felix) & George Iliff (Oscar) redefine the roles in a couple of inspired performances, aided & abetted by poker pals Dorian Oliver, Warren Baehr, Chuck Harwood, and Keith Keyser, and a delightful turn by Pigeon Sisters Juliet Flint & Kaitlyn Johnson.
“People always get a kick out of two guys going at each other,” said McLaglen. “But this is also a play about friendship and about the pain of divorce.”
You’ll laugh, a lot. Don’t miss this one.