Simon Revisits ‘Odd Couple’

Neil Simon has updated his 1965 comedy “The Odd Couple” for a June 19-July 21 production at the Geffen Playhouse, to be called “Oscar and Felix: A New Look at ‘The Odd Couple.’”

The play’s story, about a slob and a compulsive neat freak who become roommates after their respective divorces, will be “exactly the same,” Simon said. However, 70% of the dialogue has been rewritten, he said.

“If it were up to me, I would rewrite 80% of my plays,” he added.

The impetus for this rewrite was an experience Simon had about six months ago, listening to an audio version of the play. “So much of it is still back in 1965,” he said.

This will be Simon’s second rewrite of “The Odd Couple.” In 1986, he wrote “The Odd Couple (Female Version),” in which the central characters of Oscar and Felix were changed to Olive and Florence, and their men’s poker group was changed to a women’s Trivial Pursuit group, along with other updates.

Two neighbor characters who were originally English sisters, the Pigeons, were changed to Spanish brothers, the Costazuelas, in the 1986 rewrite. This time, the neighbors’ gender goes back to the original, but the surname from the second rewrite will remain--the neighbors will be sisters named Costazuela.

Both earlier versions of the play “still do extremely well,” Simon said. “But maybe I like the idea of doing trilogies”--referring to his trilogy of “suite” plays and his trilogy of autobiographical “BB” plays: “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Biloxi Blues” and “Broadway Bound.”

He said a group of people in their 20s, some of whom hadn’t seen either version of the play or the movie, responded well to the latest rewrite during a recent reading in Beverly Hills.

Geffen producing director Gilbert Cates said the rewrite is “very funny and very current.”

Asked if the Geffen is being used as a Broadway tryout house for the rewrite, Cates replied that “we’re interested only in doing plays for our audience here, within 30 miles of the theater.” He noted that Simon lives in Bel-Air, “almost within walking distance” of the Geffen in Westwood, so he qualifies as a neighborhood playwright.

In other Geffen news, Megan Mullally has withdrawn from her role in the next production, “He Hunts.” Cates and director David Schweizer both cited “impossible scheduling crunches” for the actress, who is shooting “Will & Grace.”

Schweizer said Mullally’s replacement is not yet set but that her role is understudied and that the show will open as scheduled, with a first preview on April 9.