Sunday, September 11, 2005

Success in cards for 'Odd Couple'

By Robert Feldberg, North Jersey Media Group

It's hard to find the exact word to describe the revival this fall of "The Odd Couple," Neil Simon's 40-year-old comedy. "Phenomenon" is good, though.

The show, which stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, has a staggering advance sale of almost $20 million, unheard of for a play (and extraordinarily rare for a musical). The scheduled six-month run is, essentially, sold out. (Although the official ticket prices range from $60 to $100, it is fair to assume that some tickets are in the hands of brokers, who are charging five times that, or even more.)

"It's nuts," said Emanuel Azenberg, the show's veteran producer, who's been presenting Simon's shows on Broadway since "The Sunshine Boys" 33 years ago. "I thought the show would do well, but not like this." (There's a possibility, he said - or at least a hope - that the stars might extend their contracts beyond 26 weeks.)

Why have tens of thousands of people gotten the simultaneous urge to buy tickets to this show? It's hard to fully explain, sort of like the stampede of lemmings (although with more laughs at the end).

What seems to have happened, though, is a kind of theatrical perfect storm, with the right actors and right play coming together at the right time.

For starters, Lane and Broderick have become Broadway's comedy team du jour.

When they opened in "The Producers" in 2001, it was very tough to get tickets, but that seemed as much because the show itself was a smash hit as because of the two stars.

When they left, however, attendance started to dip. And then when they returned for a limited engagement, sales went through the roof. You couldn't get a seat, just as has happened with "The Odd Couple."

"They're popular separately, but it's nothing compared to the way people [regard] them as a team," said a longtime press agent. "It's almost like they've become Abbott and Costello or Martin and Lewis."

Azenberg suggested it was important to include "The Odd Couple" in the equation, as something in which audiences are eager to see them.

"I don't think you'd see this reaction if they were doing 'Of Mice and Men,'Ÿ" he said. "The audience feels safe with them in this show."

Azenberg said the public has a perception of the men's comic personalities, formed at least in part from their roles in "The Producers," where Broderick was the meek and fussy accountant Leo Bloom and Lane the loud and coarse producer Max Bialystock.

It's not much of a stretch to imagine them in the well-known "Odd Couple," where Broderick will play the fussy Felix Ungar and Lane the slobbish Oscar Madison.

Azenberg said that although Lane had expressed a casual desire in the past to do the comedy, nothing happened until a year and a half ago.

"Nathan was performing at a Drama League function, and Neil was there and thought he was very funny and dropped him a note."

That led to a discussion about Lane playing Oscar, and he suggested Broderick as his co-star, said Azenberg. Broderick had worked with Simon previously, in "Brighton Beach Memoirs" and "Biloxi Blues."

Even though the show is a guaranteed moneymaker for Azenberg and its other producers, and it would seem all he has to do is sit back and count the receipts - "I don't have to advertise; there are no tickets" - he said there's still pressure.

"It has to be good."

Joe Mantello, one of Broadway's most highly regarded directors, has been hired to stage the show, and the supporting cast includes such impressive comic actors as Brad Garrett, who played Ray Romano's brother on "Everybody Loves Raymond."

Said Azenberg, "We want this to be an event that lives up to the advance sale."