While it has been known for a while that Shane Jacobson and Todd McKenney would be performing in the lead roles of Oscar and Felix in the upcoming Australian production of The Odd Couple, producer John Frost for Crossroads Lives has today unveiled the complete cast for Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple, set to perform at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre starting in May and Theatre Royal Sydney from June.
The pair will be joined by big names including Lucy Durack and Penny McNamee, playing the roles of Cecily Pigeon and Gwendolyn Pigeon. This is a reunion for the pair, having previously played alongside each other in the original Australian cast of Wicked. The poker loving friends of Oscar will be played by John Batchelor, Laurence Coy, Jamie Oxenbould and Anthony Taufa, with Berynn Schwerdt and Hayden Spencer as understudies.
John Frost expressed his excitement about the cast, sharing:
I’m thrilled we have such a stellar cast to join Shane Jacobson and Todd McKenney in The Odd Couple. What a coup that Lucy Durack and Penny McNamee are available to join the cast, and that the esteemed director Mark Kilmurry will be pulling the strings. I know audiences are going to fall back in love with The Odd Couple all over again. This classic laugh-a-minute play by the master of comedy Neil Simon is sure to have audiences rolling in the aisles.
While many of the leading main cast members have made names for themselves over the years in the musical space particularly, The Odd Couple is a straight theatrical work following two single pals – a sloppy sportswriter and a fastidious news writer – who quickly strain their friendship by becoming ecoming roommates and unconsciously repeating the same mistakes they made in the marriages they just left. Neurotic and neat freak Felix Ungar is thrown out by his wife, and moves in with his slovenly friend Oscar Madison. The characteristics that drove each of them to leave their wives soon have them at each other’s throats in this classic comedy. It is an enjoyable experience, and you can read my thoughts on a 2015 production of the show run by Queensland Theatre (then, Queensland Theatre Company), HERE.
The Odd Couple will commence at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre from 18 May 2024, followed by a run at Sydney’s Theatre Royal from 27 June 2024. Tickets are available at each venue from $69.90 excluding transaction fees, and booking information for both states can be found via each venue’s official website.
