Thursday, October 27, 2005

Quotable Quotes: On the Opening Night Red Carpet of The Odd Couple

Interviews by Paul Wontorek
Compiled by Lyssa Mandel, Broadway.com

WHAT: Opening night of the revival of Neil Simon's classic 1965 comedy The Odd Couple

WHERE: Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square

WHEN: Thursday, October 27, 2005

I've worked with them both before on other projects, and I thank Mel Brooks for putting them together. Now they're together again. They're brilliant, they're just brilliant, and I had a great time watching them.—Writer Neil Simon on the perfect pairing of Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick as the two stars of his play

When I was a kid, I was part of a play-of-the-month club called the Fireside Theatre, and the first play they sent me was The Odd Couple,which I actually have in my dressing room. And not only was it an introduction to Neil's work, which I love, but with the black-and-white photos of Walter Matthau and Art Carney, it just symbolized Broadway and something that I dreamed about. That certainly stuck with me... It's always sort of been in my head.—Star Nathan Lane on his long relationship with the play

I've enjoyed working with Nathan again, and Neil Simon whom I worked with when I'd really just started, 25 years ago. It's just wonderful to see him at the rehearsal again from all those years back, and to be doing his dialogue again is really very thrilling for me.—Matthew Broderick, who starred in Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues on Broadway

To me it's like Shakespeare. The construction of it, hearing how things are building and building to the joke, every line. It's just like this huge quilt. It's fascinating. And then to be there with Neil Simon when he said, 'I like what you did, kid,' or something… Oh my God! Neil Simon gave me the thumbs up! Because if he'd given me the thumbs down I'm sure that music would've been out the next day!—Composer Marc Shaiman, who contributed original music to the production

Joe [Mantello] directed it in a really faithful, 1964-Broadway-production kind of way, and all the designers designed it that way. I think some of the people who maybe have been theatergoers for a long time in their lives are going, 'Yeah! I remember loving things like this!' I think it harks back to a really great Broadway comedy from 40 years ago.—Peter Frechette, who plays Roy

It's very exciting. It's one of the greatest, I think, comedies ever written. Sharing the stage with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, and Joe Montello directing, and Neil Simon coming by to spruce it up… it's been great. And I've been going to college. This has been school, as I tell my kids. I've been learning a lot. And if you're going to learn, learn with the best. I'm happy to be on the bus.—Everybody Loves Raymond star Brad Garrett, who makes his Broadway debut as police officer Murray

It's almost like Shakespeare in that it's there. The words are there. Read what's on the page and trust it.—Rob Bartlett, who plays Speed

Just pretty much say [the jokes] and just stand back; it does the work for you. It's been kinda easy because it's so well constructed, and Joe knew what he wanted and Nathan—just lock eyes with Nathan… It's been pretty easy. And you know I don't have a lot of heavy lifting. Come in and do a couple scenes, eat a sandwich when I'm hungry in the middle of the show. I'm fine.—Lee Wilkof, who plays Vinnie

I think a lot of people just think of the sitcom. It's really a sweet little poignant play about these lost souls, and it's not just joke to joke to joke. It's been really fun to discover that and mine that. And I think the humor…a lot of it really comes from the behavior, and not just selling a joke. That's just gold to play, if you can do it.—Jessica Stone, who plays Cecily Pigeon

People really know the movie, and the movie's a pretty faithful adaptation of the play. The play is this really, really surprising thing about two people who can't live together. It's beautiful—multiple layers of stuff going in the writing. I think we really did discover something we didn't remember or realize was there once we read it and started working on it.—Peter Frechette

I think the timelessness of [Simon's] writing is nostalgic to so many people. I think the fact that this is a revival—there's something disarming about the fact that it's going back to a time of innocence. And I think that he very much represents that in his work, in his words, in the characters that he writes. There's a melancholy, but it's funny. The humor almost comes out of the tragedy of these comedies and that's real and truthful to people who watch it.—Broadway newcomer Olivia d'Abo, who plays Gwendolyn Pigeon

They're great. They're just amazing. Together? I really don't know how to put it into words. But I think on their own, they're just so singularly wonderful and both kind of geniuses. And together, they make some alchemy happen, and they make something that's way bigger than just the one or the other. Just the one of them is enough, but the two of them.. There's something there that…. I don't know. Like I said, alchemy. I don't know what it is.—Peter Frechette, on the electric chemistry between Lane and Broderick

They really, really like each other. They get a kick out of each other. Matthew knows how to make Nathan laugh. I didn't know Matthew was such a cut-up. Although Nathan's the more serious of the two, really. In real life. It was fun to watch them.—Lee Wilkof

They're not carbon copies of one another. They're very, very different people and different actors, and I think that is exciting.—Jessica Stone

Nathan's very dry and Matthew is very sympathetic, and you get this sense that he's always trying to get something from Nathan. He's trying to break him…. They bring these human emotions out of each other and that is really identifiable as an audience.—Olivia d'Abo

It's like Abbott and Costello, except both of 'em are funny. There's just that wisp of whatever it is that they call chemistry. When the two of them are together in the room, there's just something. There's genuine love between the two of them and that translates. Each of them is just so talented on his own, that it's, like, annoying, but together, it becomes exponential.—Rob Bartlett

We're just two guys who're trying to make a living. We're friends, and we work well together, I guess. This could be the end, but we're doing the best we can. We have fun.—Nathan Lane on Broderick

I think they have very similar comedy sensibilities. They have similar tastes in comedy. And I think they genuinely like each other. It's a real relationship offstage, all the good and all the bad—the real stuff, like a real friendship. I think they have great respect for one another, and I think that kind of substantial relationship shows on stage.—Sarah Jessica Parker (Mrs. Matthew Broderick) on the relationship between the stars

It's the sex. It's that good.—Nathan Lane, delivering the last word on why he and Broderick work so well together