The Odd Couple

By Neil Simon

Directed by Chris Holcom

Extended! Feb. 3 – 27, 2011

Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm

Tickets: $24.50

Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts

Winner!

  • Creative Loafing Best of the Bay – Best Actor – Paul Potenza

Making sense of mortality in the digital age

Likely the surprise of the season to the Jobsite faithful, this 1965 Tony Award winner for Best Play is being given an unsanitized revival by one of Tampa's most consistently daring and quality companies.

Felix (Paul J. Potenza) has just broken up with his wife. With nowhere else to go, he is urged by his good friend, Oscar (Shawn Paonessa), to move in with him. Oscar is a disorganized, casual, incurable slob and Felix is an uptight, neat and neurotic control freak. Slowly but surely, the pair begin to drive each other crazy with their various idiosyncrasies.

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(L-R) Paul J. Potenza and Shawn Paonessa in Jobsite's The Odd Couple. (Photo by Brian Smallheer.)

Click to enlarge

Things go from bad to worse through poker games with pals (Ward Smith, Michael C. McGreevy, Slake Counts and Jason Vaughan Evans), and when Oscar sets up a double-date with a pair of British sisters (Katrina Stevenson and Summer Bohnenkamp-Jenkins). Still, in this hilarious tale of mismatched buddies they'll learn that love, trust and friendship are more important than living in different worlds.

For those who have long-admired Simon's masterpiece, there is no need to worry. This production isn't being rewritten to 2011 Williamsburg, set on the moon or performed with trained animals instead of actors.

For those who may dismiss the title, Jobsite urges you to think again. According to Jobsite Producing Artistic Director David M. Jenkins, "When Paul and Shawn brought this to the board, I think most of us thought they were crazy. Or that they were pulling our leg. They persisted though, and after we all went back and read it again we agreed that we all forgot how truly funny it is. We tend to do a contemporary classic comedy once a year like What the Butler Saw or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, so this really makes sense. This is a great script with an all-star cast."

The Odd Couple, in all its 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 television news writer Felix Ungar.

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.

About the Artists

Jobsite stalwarts Paul J. Potenza (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Pillowman) and Shawn Paonessa (Dog Sees God, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead) star as Felix and Oscar, and are supported by Summer Bohnenkamp-Jenkins, Slake Counts, Jason Vaughan Evans, Michael C. McGreevy, Ward Smith and Katrina Stevenson.

The show features direction Chris Holcom (The Night of the Living Dead, A Dream Play), set and lights by Brian Smallheer and costumes by Katrina Stevenson.

See more about the cast and crew.

"... on point, even five decades after the initial Broadway premiere... With dialogue as engaging as Simon's and the stellar execution of Jobsite's cast, The Odd Couple is surely on the short list [for] best this year." - OnStageTampa

"Potenza, easily one of the best performers in the Bay area, gives a brilliant interpretation of cleanliness-obsessed, sad sack Felix, and Paonessa, who seems to have born for his role, does everything right as slob Oscar, the poker-playing sportswriter." – Creative Loafing