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Next Stage Repertory presents 'The Odd Couple' Mark Ropers and Roy Rains face off as mismatched roomies Felix Unger and Oscar Madison in Next Stage's "The Odd Couple." Mail Tribune / Denise Baratta Wednesday Jan 4, 2017 at 2:06 PM Jan 4, 2017 at 2:06 PM Laurie Heuston Mail Tribune When neurotic neat freak Felix Ungar is sent packing by his wife, he moves into uber slob Oscar Madison's apartment in Manhattan. Oscar, despite his poorly kept living arrangement, careless spending and excessive gambling, seems to enjoy life. Felix, on the other hand, only finds purpose in pointing at his own — and other peoples' — mistakes and foibles. The clash between the men's lifestyles escalates in Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple," creating a real-life situation that becomes funnier and funnier as Felix and Oscar go to greater and greater lengths to drive each other crazy. Next Stage Repertory will present "The Odd Couple," directed by Doug Warner, at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Jan. 6-7 and 13-14, in the Craterian Theater, 23 S. Central Ave., Medford. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased online at craterian.org, at the box office, 16 S. Bartlett St., or by calling 541-779-3000. This is the first time Warner has directed "The Odd Couple." He's approached the play eight or nine times during his career but felt it was too overdone. Planning Next Stage Repertory's 2016-2017 season of shows, he decided to include crowd pleasers "Taking Steps," "On Golden Pond" and Simon's "The Odd Couple." "I thought maybe it was time, and I finally have the actors that I want to star in it," he says. "They have great chemistry between them." With Mark Ropers as Felix Ungar and Roy Rains as Oscar Madison, Greg Franklin, Peter Wickliffe, David Rowley and Justin Briggs play second bananas as poker buddies Murray, Roy, Vinnie and Speed, respectively. Marlena Gray and Andrea Hochkeppel play the Pigeon sisters: Gwen and Cecily. "The banter goes back and forth," Warner says. "Ultimately, the boys' poker nights completely change when Felix moves into Oscar's apartment. At first they kind of like it because Felix makes them sandwiches and keeps their drinks filled. Then he starts to drive them nuts by making them use coasters, scolding them for smoking cigars and sanitizing the playing cards." Warner has produced Simon's "Prisoner of Second Avenue" and "Lost in Yonkers." "There's a very urban sense of humor in Simon's plays," he says. "It's that great tradition of comedy that comes out of New York, and Neil Simon is one of best. He's the master of the well-made play. "Because we like the idea of New York's '60s culture — the weekly poker game, cheap groceries and cab fares — we keep the play set in Manhattan. Things have changed since the day men wore ties and hats. 'The Odd Couple' makes a great period piece." Following its premiere in 1965 on Broadway, Simon's characters were revived in a successful 1968 film starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau as our mismatched duo, and a '70s television series starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. Playwright, screenwriter and author Simon has more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of screenplays, mostly adaptations of his plays, to his credit. He's received more Oscar and Tony nominations than any other. In 1991, he won a Pulitzer Prize for "Lost in Yonkers." Simon's hallmark is his compassion for everyday people, and his plays are about friendships, relationships and marriages. He creates real situations, and that's where the comedy derives from. His characters are portrayed as "imperfect, unheroic people who at heart are decent human beings." "It's what I call 'given circumstances' opposed to writing a bunch of jokes," Warner says. "Simon creates situations with fairly common people. When Felix and Oscar's personalities and lifestyles clash, they drive each other crazy. That's where all of the comedy comes from in 'The Odd Couple.' " Simon's oeuvre includes "Barefoot in the Park," "Sweet Charity," "The Prisoner of Second Avenue," "The Sunshine Boys," "I Ought to Be in Pictures," "Brighton Beach Memoirs," "Biloxi Blues," "The Goodbye Girl" and "Laughter on the 23rd Floor," to name a few. Simon penned "The Female Odd Couple" in 1985 and "Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple" in 2004.