A story about two unlikely roommates -- Felix Unger, a neurotic, neatnick newsman; Oscar Madison, a slovenly, devil-may-care sports writer -- are separated from their spouses, but when Felix moves in with Oscar, each one's habits quickly become the central comical conflict.
Neil Simon's 1965 The Odd Couple has been seen on Broadway and around the world, engendering a 1968 film and a popular 1970s television sitcom, and in 1985, The Odd Couple: the Female Version was born, and is currently playing in Millbrook.
Felix is now Florence, and Oscar becomes Olive; the weekly poker nights become a gathering of women friends playing "Trivial Pursuit"; and the upstairs British Pigeon sisters are now the Spanish Costazuela brothers. -- And pretty much everything else remains the same, continuing to pack a comical punch even though many of the popular culture references are now a bit stale.
Luckily, director Stephanie McGuire has conscripted a number of Millbrook's veterans in the featured roles [as well as in the supporting ones]. Karla McGhee shines as the messy and careless Olive, whose frustrations with Vicki Moses's fastidious Florence, afford audiences plenty of opportunities to identify with the conflict, laughing both at and with the two lead actors/roles.
The participants in the weekly board game, parallel the characters in the original male version, and each one -- Tracey Quotes, Tammy Arvidson, Donna Young, and Millbrook newcomer Ginger Connor -- creates a clear character believably.
When the brothers show up in Act II as "dates" for Florence and Olive, Manolo [Mark McGuire] and Jesus [Steve Phillips] add another dimension of cultural and language confusions, that are played with appropriate verve...what happens after the "date" is destined to repeat what we've just seen.
The Odd Couple: the Female Version is a lighthearted and pleasant evening out in Millbrook.
