Review: The Odd Couple by Matt Byrne Media

Everything old is new again – and surprisingly relevant – in this new production of a Neil Simon classic at Holden Street Theatres.

Matt Byrne and David Grybowski in The Odd Couple by MBM

Matt Byrne’s production of Neil Simon’s 60s sitcom-with-an-edge The Odd Couple is a happy exercise in “everything old is new again”.

The tall tale of two spectacularly mismatched friends, one a cigar-smoking, ash-dropping slop and the other a fastidious fusspot, still hits the spot 55 years on.

Oscar and Felix are two of a six-strong group whose weekly poker game is “time out” from work and family. They’re all concerned when Felix doesn’t show, though we soon find out his wife has given him the heave-ho.

Oscar, in a friendly gesture, offers him a room, but Felix’s pedantry quickly palls. When Felix wildly over-organises a dinner with a couple of ditzy English girls from a couple of floors up, the fur begins to fly – or it would, except that Felix would immediately vacuum it up.

Cast of The Odd Couple by Matt Byrne Media. Picture: Supplied

Byrne plays the dishevelled Oscar with great aplomb, a delightful foil to David Grybowski’s wearily sedulous Felix.

Both are accomplished character actors, and have a terrific rapport, ably contending with the fast-flowing stream of wisecracks.

Byrne channels Walter Matthau’s celebrated original to considerable effect, while Grybowski runs the emotional gamut from painful shyness to rollicking farce.

If much about The Odd Couple is dated, there are some surprisingly contemporary references, not least the deep concern among five blue-blooded American men about Felix when they find out he’s been dumped and fear that he might attempt suicide.

While that, and much more, is played firmly for laughs, it’s indicative of the melancholy thread that runs through the play, and is surely one of the reasons for its enduring popularity.

The Odd Couple

Holden Street Theatres

November 13-28