STAGE REVIEW Ladies make for hilarious 'Odd Couple'

The excellent ensemble cast gave a near-perfect performance.
By GARRY L. CLARK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LISBON -- Remember when you were growing up and had to share your room with your brother or sister? Or maybe sharing a dormitory room or apartment at college? Remember how one of you was neat and tidy and the other was, to put it charitably, slovenly?
Extend that experience into full adulthood and middle-age and you have Neil Simon's uproarious comedy, "The Odd Couple." The Stage Left Players opened the female version of this classic Friday evening at the Outreach Center.
Simon's well-known characters of Felix Unger and Oscar Madison have morphed into fastidious Florence Unger and unkempt Olive Madison. This version may well be even funnier than the original.
Same results
These female counterparts don't spend their evenings playing poker with the boys a la Felix and Oscar. They play Trivial Pursuit with the girls. But, the results are pretty much the same: The recently separated Florence pines about what went wrong with her 14-year marriage while Olive, a couple of years past her divorce, wonders how she'll survive her lapse of judgment in allowing the persnickety Florence to move in with her.
Florence's natural talent for driving her friends up the wall extends to their fellow Pursuit players, Sylvie, Mickey, Renee and Vera, and romantic entanglements begin with the arrival of the "suave" Spanish neighbors, brother, Manolo and Jesus.
To paraphrase from the TV sitcom's opening number, "Can two divorced women share an apartment without driving each other crazy?" The answer is "No," and that, too, is where the fun lies in this hilarious farce.
Cast
Dick Fawcett in his debut as a director has assembled a perfect ensemble cast for this piece. His wife, Kathy L. Fawcett, portrayed the whiny, complaining Florence splendidly.
Vicki Rossi was an absolute delight as Olive, supplying her with a dead-on New York accent, and delivering her comedic lines with flawless timing.
Strong performances also were given by their "friends," with Patti Pritchard L'Italien as Sylvie, Karen E. Houk-Losito as Mickey (there's one with a need for anger-management counseling!), Patti Polite as Renee and a hilarious turn by Patty Eaton as Vera.
Rounding out the cast as the Spanish brothers were Daniel Haueter as Manolo and Sean Loutzenhiser as Jesus. Both were extraordinarily funny as they tried to lavish their attentions upon Florence.
SLP has mounted an excellent production that provides a full evening of fun and laughter.
clark@vindy.com