Lane and Broderick to Play Oscar and Felix

Art Carney and Walter Matthau played them on Broadway first in 1965. Then, Mr. Matthau made a film with the brilliant and glorious Jack Lemmon. On TV, Tony Randall and Jack Klugman became Oscar and Felix for an entire generation that had never seen the film. And now, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick are about to play Broadway as Neil Simon’s “Odd Couple.” Big shoes to fill – big feet, too.

The two have already established themselves as the biggest Broadway Draw of the Millennium (although there are about 995 more years for someone to top them) with “The Producers.” The show played to sell-out houses when they opened in 2001, and sold out again when they did a reprise performance in 2004. They set price records for tickets, $480 for the second-row, $100 for the nose-bleeds. And 12 Tony Awards didn’t hurt.

The “Odd Couple,” however, offers something in the script that “The Producers” doesn’t – a study in human foibles. The Mel Brooks’ show is funny (and indeed, the film version borders on perfection with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder) because of the plot premise – trying to deliberately create a bad musical for financial gain. The Neil Simon play is funny because, as the announcer asks in the opening of the TV version “Can two grown men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?” The smart money says “no.”

Mr. Lane will take the role of slob Oscar Madison, while Mr. Broderick will play Felix Unger, compulsive neat freak who moves in with Madison because his wife threw him out. In real life (whatever that may turn out to be), Mr. Lane is the neater of the two, but neater still is the fact that all the tickets are already gone. The show is just beginning previews, will open October 27 and is scheduled to run until April 2, 2006 – and every show (8 a week) is sold out. There isn’t a seat to be had at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Ticket brokers, most appropriately called scalpers, are getting $1,000 a pop.

Mr. Lane just slammed his right index finger in a door requiring 14 stitches and a rather awful splint and bandage. He will remove it for the performances. The AP reports the following exchange between the actors:

LANE: I'm not going to wear this in the show. Have you met my finger puppet Melvin?

BRODERICK: Is it, like, throbbing?

LANE: Yes, it's throbbing. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.”