COUPLE Still Number One

My book group occasionally reads plays aloud. At a Labor Day party, we took it easy and read The Odd Couple. We may be a bunch of amateurs, but re-reading the piece confirmed my belief it's the funniest play ever written. It's not the deepest, or the wittiest (that would be The Importance Of Being Earnest), but as far as providing laughs, I'm not aware of anything better.

Neil Simon was inspired to write the play, about two mismatched male roommates, when he saw his older brother Danny trying to live with another divorced man. (He also based characters in Come Blow Your Horn and Broadway Bound on Danny.) Actually, Danny tried to write the play first, but gave up after 14 pages--a TV man, he didn't like writing alone.

But it's not merely the situation, funny though it is, that makes this play crackle with delight. It's the wonderfully observed characters and--there's no way around it--Neil Simon's astonishing way with a wisecrack. A lot of critics think this is a shallow talent, but, just as Shaw noted no one else could write plays as witty as the money-making Wilde's, so is Simon's ability with a quip awe-inspiring. Anyone can put together a good line or two in a funny situation, but no one can match Simon at his best; the laughs flow naturally, one after another, and don't seem forced.

Simon wrote the play with Walter Matthau in mind for the slovenly Oscar, and it made him a star. Art Carney, a bigger name at the time, played the other lead, Felix. The original 1965 production was directed by Mike Nichols, who'd helmed Simon's previous blockbuster, Barefoot In The Park. Since these youthful, very funny plays, Simon has gotten more "serious," but I'm not sure if he's gotten better.

Certainly Simon knows he captured something special in Odd Couple. He's been tinkering with it ever since. Though he didn't work on the well-known TV series, he did write the mostly faithful screenplay for the hit movie version. He also wrote a female version of the play in the 80s, and an updated male version a few years ago. Then there's The Odd Couple II, a sequel to the movie. All these takes, however, pale next to the original. That's why (I assume) when the Broadway revival starring Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane opens on Broadway this October, they will be playing the first, and best, version.