A familiar L.A. stage pair segues into ‘Odd Couple’

Martin Short and Jason Alexander headline a staged reading of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple” this week, teaming for the first time since they traded witticisms in the L.A. run of Mel Brooks’ “The Producers.”

The Reprise! Broadway’s Best event takes place Friday and Saturday at the Wadsworth Theatre in Brentwood.

Alexander, Reprise’s artistic director, will direct. Or, as he puts it, “I’m managing the chaos, is what I’m doing.”

How does it feel to be playing opposite “Second City” comedian-turned-Broadway star Short again?

“Great. Working with that nut is everything you would imagine it would be and more,” Alexander says.

One question is unavoidable: Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick have paired up on Broadway in “The Producers” and “The Odd Couple.” Alexander and Short are taking the same route in L.A. Is this becoming a habit?

“You know, I keep hoping those guys keep doing more stuff, because we’re out of ideas, Marty and I,” Alexander says, laughing.

But, he adds, “When you look like me and Nathan and Marty and Matthew, eventually you’re probably going to get around to ‘The Odd Couple.’ ”

Simon’s Tony Award winner about sloppy sportswriter Oscar and his obsessively tidy roommate, Felix, hasn’t lost its charm, even sparking a female version. The appeal remains fresh because Simon crafted the play with “a classic formula,” Alexander says.

“You have characters that are diametrically opposed, thrust into a situation where they both have similar needs but very different approaches to how to satisfy those needs. In some odd, ironic way, they complete each other but are completely unaware of that.”

Not unexpectedly, Alexander will take on messy Oscar to Short’s neat-freak Felix. “Very few people would buy me as Felix,” he says. “I could do it, but there’s something about me that suggests slob a little more readily, I guess. Dapper slob, but slob nonetheless.”

The cast also features Cleavant Derricks, Michael Kostroff and a couple of Alexander’s fellow “Seinfeld” alums: Wayne Knight and Patrick Warburton. Olivia d’Abo and Rachel York will play the Pigeon Sisters.

-- Lynne Heffley