Did Critics Relish the Reteaming of Lane and Broderick in The Odd Couple?

The hottest ticket of the fall season has undoubtedly been Neil Simon's The Odd Couple with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. And now the classic comedy has officially arrived on the scene, opening its limited engagement on October 27 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Did critics think the show is worthy of its the hype?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Rob Kendt in his Broadway.com Review: "Director Joe Mantello's hyper-competent, super-sold-out new Broadway revival is savvy enough not to linger over the play's awkward notes of pathos. Instead it grooves winningly on the play's tightly coiled comic rhythms, to the point that it almost sings… Lane, as always, is a kind of master of ceremonies; he doesn't play characters so much as he plays our unflappable, aside-wielding guide to the funhouse of their lives. He gives Oscar's endless one-liners a grand snap and plays his double and triple takes with jazzy confidence… As the ingenuous, anal-retentive Felix, Broderick has a grinning, robotic poise that is oddly compelling, if not particularly funny. The droll, distancing smirk that colors all of Broderick's work makes Felix's self-dramatizing peculiarities-the neat-freakiness, the stultifying caution, the passive-aggressive meekness-seem like an elaborate put-on… The blame here must rest with Simon. Apart from a series of bewhiskered vaudevillian jokes, the most dated thing about The Odd Couple is panicky, pathetic Felix."

Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "[A] self-consciousness informs Mr. Lane's and Mr. Broderick's attitudes in The Odd Couple, which automatically creates a distance between them and the men they are playing. Their performances are framed in quotation marks. Mr. Lane is 'doing' macho and slovenly; Mr. Broderick is 'doing' repressed and anal-retentive. That's different from being slovenly or anal-retentive. And the gap between doing and being fatally exposes the cogs and gears of Mr. Simon's impeccably assembled comic clockwork."

Clive Barnes of The New York Post: "Steal tickets if you can--the chemistry's still there. Burdened by nearly impossible expectations, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick proved the right couple for Neil Simon's The Odd Couple… Director Joe Mantello Mike Nichols did the honors back in '65 is attentive to the play's every twist and nuance. He acutely accents the possibilities for visual humor, deftly caught by John Lee Beatty's period-perfect settings and the costumes by Ann Roth. The casting is superb at these prices, it should be and the visuals, delicious."

Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "When the curtain goes up on the revival ofThe Odd Couple, Neil Simon's 1965 comedy, at the Brooks Atkinson Theater, you see the real stars of the production - Rob Bartlett, Brad Garrett and Lee Wilkof… I have been dwelling at length on these inspired actors, who appear onstage barely 20 minutes, because it is so awkward to have to deal with The Stars, who seem sadly miscast. At times, Lane and Broderick remind you of The Producers' Max and Leo, though at a lower energy level. Lane falls back on his stock mannerisms--the look of outrage with a conspiratorial glance at the audience, the braying Broderick seems totally at a loss. Neither of them--nor director Joe Mantello--appears to have given any consideration to the characters Simon has written."

Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "Lane is the spark that drives this high-powered production, which also stars Matthew Broderick as the ultra-fastidious Felix Ungar, Oscar's mismatched roommate. The two performers, who cemented their professional partnership in a little something called The Producers, have now honed their interplay into high comedic art... Lane knows how to land a laugh, and he gets every one that Simon has written in this saga of two divorced--or soon-to-be divorced--men trying to start new lives... Broderick's physicality is perfect, capturing the man's considerable neuroses in every twitch and jerk… Mantello and his cast have taken the comedy seriously and that's what makes it so funny."

David Rooney of Variety: "It's not the rusty vehicle that's the chief problem in this slick but stale revival of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple. Rather, it's the profound imbalance in the lead performances. As grouchy Oscar Madison, Nathan Lane snuggles deep into his character like a ratty, old favorite sweater. But as uptight neurotic Felix Ungar, Matthew Broderick is on smirking autopilot, sapping any heart from the bond between these quarrelsome buddies."

Elysa Gardner of USA Today: "Lane plunges into the alternately grouchy and garrulous Oscar with predictable relish, and Broderick makes a sweetly droll fussbudget. But it's the rapport between them that truly delights… Simon's 1965 play hasn't held up as well over the past 40 years, though, as its new stars have over the past four. It's not that this presentation seems distractingly dated; designer John Lee Beatty's period leisure wear and Hairspray composer Marc Shaiman's jazzy incidental music are endearing. But The Odd Couple remains a stage comedy with the soul of a sitcom."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "Lane is a delightful thug as the divorced Oscar, a role created on stage and film by Walter Matthau and imprinted in our homes by Jack Klugman. Broderick has his just-hatched pallor and ungainly grace… Mantello, who knows his way through such contrasting aesthetics as Wicked, Assassins and Glengarry Glen Ross, proves here that he can be equally in command of Broadway's old-time, middle-aged, middle-class humor. Why he wants to is less simple to understand, but he has approached each double-take and punchline as a classic."