'The Odd Couple' incites laughs from crowd

By Lauren Duffy

A remake of Neil Simon's hilarious Broadway hit, "The Odd Couple" has hit the Santa Clara stage, but with a feminine twist. Seniors Ina Michelle and Dani Lencioni star as Florence Unger and Olive Madison, two roommates living in New York who couldn't be more different.

"I get to run around and throw spaghettiâ?¦ It's a very interactive show," said Lencioni, who stars as the sports-obsessed, cluttered character of Olive Madison, while Michelle masterfully portrays the uber-feminine, neurotic clean freak Florence Unger.

With raunchy jokes and slapstick comedy, "The Odd Couple" is anything but boring. The amusing comedy brought the laughs and kept the audience grinning throughout the performance due to its fast-paced, witty dialogue. Aldo Billingslea directed the show, putting a female spin on Neil Simon's long-running, commercially successful Broadway production.

In this version of "The Odd Couple," the play begins with Olive inviting the girls over for a game night of Trivial Pursuit, which leads to some laughter inducing dialogue about the sex lives of penguins within the first couple of minutes.

The hilarity continues with the arrival of the suave, Spanish duo of the Costazuela brothers, played by Junior Peter Dziuba and Sophomore Thomas Dang. Dziuba and Dang play off of one another perfectly with deadpan senses of humor and excellent comic timing.

"I loved the community that Aldo [Billingslea] created with us," said Michelle, who said it was wonderful to be around people who care about theater and about each other by supporting the work everyone was doing. The tight-knit cast of eight features mostly freshmen, so "The Odd Couple" is a great opportunity to see fresh faces of the Santa Clara theater community.

"I'm not the kind of person people would call funny," said Michelle, who has done more dramatic work in theater classes and in performances including "Execution of Justice" and "Twelfth Night." Michelle, who is a theater major, said that the physical comedy of "The Odd Couple" was, "a whole different ball game, but really fun."

Beneath the zany, sarcastic exterior, "The Odd Couple" presents commentary on gender roles that is still very relevant today. The dilemma of women having to choose between the role of a housewife or an independent career woman is a difficult balance, and the comedy gives insightful social commentary on this issue through a humorous medium.

"Neil Simon is one of the greatest American playwrights. His plays are inherently funny," said Lencioni. Simon is a playwright and screenwriter originally from New York, and his numerous successful plays have led to his work being among the most regularly performed in the world.

Beyond the original Broadway version of the play, "The Odd Couple" was adapted to film in 1968, starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau as two friends with radically different ideas of housekeeping and lifestyles, and as a popular Emmy award winning television show in the 1970's starring Jack Klugman and Tony Randall.

With socks resting over lampshades, pizza boxes splayed over couch cushions, and Budweiser bottles and mountains of clothing littering the floor, the set design of Santa Clara's version of "The Odd Couple" is fantastic. Scene Designer Dylan Della Maggiora did an excellent job of rendering the urban squalor of Olive's apartment.

This version of "The Odd Couple" is set in the 1980's, and Costume Designer Dereck Verissimo chose shoulder-padded, poofy-sleeved ensembles that perfectly epitomize the style of the time.

Music from the '80's was also utilized wonderfully in the play, with a soundtrack, featuring Santana, Pat Benatar and Billy Joel, that had the audience rocking out in their seats. In one particularly tense scene, Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" added the perfect level of drama to the plot.

Lencioni describes the show as "two hours of jokes," and "The Odd Couple" is a fun production that is amusing and totally engaging.

"It's a group of really sweet, really sincere people who enjoy what they do and want to tell a funny entertaining story," said Michelle.

"The Odd Couple" will continue to run May until the 15th at 8:00 p.m. at Santa Clara's Fess Parker Studio Theatre.

Contact Lauren Duffy at leduffy@scu.edu or at (408) 554-1918.